REESE    LIBRARY 

OF   THB 

UNIVERSITY    OF    CALIFORNIA. 


Received 
Accessions  No,  . 


Shelf  N 


BY  THE  SAME  AUTHOR. 


THE  NATION. 

The  Foundations  of  Civil  Order  and  Political  Life  in  the  United 
States.    By  ELISHA  MULFORD,  LL.  D.     i  vol.  crown  8vo,  $2.50. 

From  HON.  JAMES  A.  GARFIELD,  President  of  the  United  States. 

It  is  a  very  able  discussion  of  what  is  to  me  one  of  the  most  important  branches 
of  political  philosophy.  Every  page  I  have  read  surprises  me  with  the  extent  and 
thoroughness  of  the  author's  study,  and  the  freshness  and  vigor  of  his  discussion. 

Front  HON.  WAYNE  MACVEAGH,  Attorney  General  of  the  United  States. 

It  is  so  complete  in  its  argument,  moves  so  steadily  to  its  own  high  end,  and  is  so 
novel  in  American  literature,  for  its  wealth  of  political  knowledge. 

From  HON.  CHARLES  SUMNER. 

I  have  read  "  The  Nation  "  from  the  first  to  the  last  with  constant  interest  and 
sympathy.  It  is  a  most  important  contribution  to  our  political  literature,  and  can- 
not fail  to  strengthen  and  elevate  our  national  life- 

In  a  letter  to  Dr.  Francis  Lieber  Mr.  Sumner  said :  "  If  you  write  to  Mr.  Mul- 
ford  let  him  know  that  I  am  one  of  his  pupils." 

From  JAMES  B.  ANGELL,  President  of  the  University  of  Michigan,  and  recently 

•  Minister  to  China. 

It  is  the  most  valuable  contribution  to  political  philosophy  which  has  been  writ- 
ten in  the  English  language  in  this  generation.  Its  hearty  recognition  of  the  moral 
element  in  the  national  life  carries  us  back  to  the  good  old  times  of  Hooker  and 
Milton. 

Front  J.  L.  DIMAN,  late  Professor  of  History  in  Brown  Uniz>crsity. 

Mr.  Mulford's  "  The  Nation  "  is  not  only  by  far  the  most  profound  and  exhaust- 
ive study  in  the  field  of  speculative  politics  that  American  scholarship  has  yet  pro- 
duced, but  we  shall  be  obliged  to  go  very  far  back  in  the  literary  annais  of  our 
mother  country  to  find  anything  worthy  of  comparison  with  it. 

From  F.  D.  MAURICE,  late  Professor  of  Moral  Philosophy,  Cambridge  University, 

England. 

The  bracing  effect  of  your  late  contest  for  freedom  is  manifest  in  its  protest 
against  commercial  theories  and  pale  abstractions  which  are  wearing  at  the  life  of 
England. 

HOUGHTON,  MIFFLIN  &  CO.,  PUBLISHERS,  BOSTON,  MASS. 


THE 


REPUBLIC    OP    GOD 


institute  of  CJjeotogp. 


ELISHA  MULFORD,  LL.  D. 


SIXTH  EDITION. 


UNIVERSITY 


BOSTON: 
HOUGHTON,   MIFFLIN  AND  COMPANY. 


1882. 


Copyright,  1881, 
By  ELISHA  MULFORD. 

£#  /4^/ 
All  rights  reserved. 


The  Riverside  Press,  Cambridge : 
Stereotyped  and  Printed  by  II.  0.  Hough  ton  &  Co. 


TO  MY  CHILDREN. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  L 

PAOl 

THE  BEING  OF  GOD 1 

The  consciousness  of  God. 

1.  The  ontological  argument. 

The  manifestation  of  God. 

The  name  of  God. 

The  knowledge  of  God  through  experience. 

2.  The  cosmological  argument. 

Causality. 

3.  The  teleological  argument. 

The  imperfection  of  the  physical  process. 

The  strife  in  nature. 

The  reconciliation. 

Necessity  is  not  inconsistent  with  freedom. 

Freedom  is  not  manifested  in  necessity. 

The  enduring  element  in  religion  and  philosophy, 

4.  The  moral  argument. 

Righteousness  and  freedom. 

CHAPTER  II. 
THE  PERSONALITY  OF  GOD 22 

Personality,  tha  highest  attainment  of  man. 

1.  The  relation  of  the  personality  of  man  to  the  personality 

of  God 

The  foundation  of  the  personality  of  man  in  the  person- 
ality of  God. 

The  knowledge  of  personality. 
Personality  the  central  principle  of  the  world. 


IV  CONTENTS 


2.  The  attributes  of  God. 

The  personality  of  God,  the  ground  of  the  knowledge  of 

God. 
The  person  of  God  and  the  scheme  of  divinity. 

CHAPTER  III. 

THE  PRECEDENT  RELATIONS  OF  RELIGION  AND  PHILOSO- 
PHY TO  THE  REVELATION  OF  GOD  .....       40 

1.  Definition  of  religion. 

The  nature  and  end  of  religion. 

The  history  of  religion. 

The  influence  of  physical  conditions  on  the  growth  of 

religion. 

Correlation  of  religion  and  philosophy. 
Conflict  between  religion  and  philosophy. 

2.  Definition  of  philosophy. 

The  relative  influence  of  religion  and  philosophy  on  the 

ethical  life  of  man. 

8.  The  revelation  of  Christ  is  not  a  religion  nor  a  philosophy. 
The  Christ  does  not  come  as  the  founder  of  a  religion. 
The  Old  Testament  is  not  the  record  of  a  religion. 
The  preface  to  the  Commandments. 
The  Commandments. 

The  New  Testament  is  not  the  record  of  a  religion. 
The  Christ  was  not  the  founder  of  a  sect  of  Christians. 
The  conflict  of  the  revelation  of  the  Christ  with  the  pa- 

gan religions. 
The  goal  of  religion  and  philosophy. 

CHAPTER  IV. 
THE  REVELATION  OF  GOD    .......      81 

This  revelation  is  from  God,  but  primarily  it  is  o/God. 
The  divine  self  revelation. 
The  revelation  for  another. 
The  revelation  of  and  through  and  to  a  person. 
The  revelation  through  Sonship. 
The  knowledge  of  God. 
Revelation  and  science. 

The  correspondence  between  discovery  in  the  physical 
process  and  revelation  in  the  spiritual  life. 


CONTENTS. 


This  revelation  alone  can  satisfy  humanity. 

The  mysteries  which  become  the  subject  of  knowledge. 

Kevelation  is  light. 

Revelation  is  through  relations. 

This  revelation  is  not  spectacular. 

The  revelation  to  faith  and  reason  and  conscience. 

CHAPTER  V. 
THE  REVELATION  OF  GOD  IN  THE  CHRIST         .        .        .10? 

The  revelation  in  a  person. 

The  revelation  which  is  not  external  to  God,  nor  exter- 
nal to  man. 

There  is  in  the  Christ:  — 

(a.)  The  consciousness  in  the  world  of  perfect  unity 

with  God. 

(6.)  The  consciousness  in  the  world  of  perfect  unity 
with  man. 

The  manifestation  of  God  in  a  person. 

The  manifestation  of  God  in  a  person;  always  in  rela- 
tions. 

The  realization  of  the  freedom  of  man  is  in  relations 
with  God. 

The  record  in  the  Evangelists  of  the  coming  of  the  Son 
of  man. 

Jesus  of  Nazareth  and  the  Christ  of  history. 

The  biographical  life  of  Jesus. 

An  apologetic  notice  of  recent  theories :  — 

(a.)  That  Jesus  came,  through  a  religious  disposition 
and  reflection,  to  adopt  the  idea  of  the  Christ. 
(6.)  That  Jesus  did  not  recognize  a  system  of  econ- 
omy, nor  the  culture  of  art. 

(c.)  That  Jesus  conceived  an  ethical  aim,  as  the  en- 
thusiasm for  humanity. 

The  Incarnation  as  physical,  and   as  ethical,   and   as 
'formative   of  the   perfect   and  perfected  life  of  hu- 
manity. 

The  Christ,  the  head  of  the  human  race. 

The  Trinity. 

The  coming  of  the  Spirit. 


vi  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  VI. 

PACE 

THE  CONVICTION  OF  THE  WORLD 133 

The  conviction  of  sin  and  of  righteousness  and  of  judgment. 

1.  The  conviction  of  sin. 

The  nature  of  sin. 

Sin  is  an   alienation  from   God   and  from  humanity, 

through  selfishness. 
The  transgression  of  the  law. 
The  contradiction  of  life. 
It  is  incident  in  the  imperfect  development  of  freedom. 

2.  The  conviction  of  righteousness. 

Righteousness  is  in  the  fulfillment  of  the  law  of  God, 
and  the  law  of  the  life  of  humanity. 

It  is  manifested  in  the  life  of  the  Christ. 

It  is  recognized  through  the  conscience  and  the  con- 
sciousness of  men. 

3.  The  conviction  of  judgment. 

The  judgment  is  in  the  revelation  of  the  light. 

The  judgment  an  object  of  desire. 

The  law  of  the  divine  judgment  in  the  oneness  of  the 

Christ  with  humanity. 
The  judgment  in  the  coming  of  the  kingdom  of  God. 

CHAPTER  VII. 
THE  REVELATION  OP  HEAVEN  TO  THE  WORLD         .        .     165 

The  Gospel  of  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven. 

The  signs  of  the  Kingdom. 

The  representations  of  the  pagan  religions. 

The  life  of  man  verified  in  the  coming  of  the  Kingdom 

of  Heaven. 
The  Kingdom  of  Heaven  realized  in  the  coming  of  the 

Christ,  in  the  Holy  Spirit. 
The  Kingdoms  of  this  world  become  the  Kingdom  of  the 

Christ. 
The  glory  of  the  conquest  of  death  not  yet  manifest, 

but  Jesus  has  that  glory. 


CONTENTS.  Vii 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

PACU 

THE  JUSTIFICATION  OF  THE  WORLD   .        .        .        .        ,173 

Righteousness  by  faith. 

The  source  and  object  of  faith. 

Faith  in  a  righteous  person. 

Faith  in  another,  and  being  in  another. 

Faith  works  with  hope  and  love. 

Faith  in  a  righteous  person,  in  the  fulfillment  of  whose 

will  is  the  unity  and  life  of  the  family  and  the  nation. 
Justification  by  faith,  and  the  unity  and  freedom  of  the 

nation  in  modern  history. 

CHAPTER  IX. 
THE  REDEMPTION  OF  THE  WORLD 18C 

The  world  is  redeemed. 

The  Christ  redeemed  the  world  :  — 

(a.)  In  becoming  himself  the  perfect  redeemer. 

(6.)  In  a  life  in  the  fulfillment  of  perfect  righteous- 
ness. 

(c.)  In  a  life  in  the  Spirit. 

(</.)  In  a  life  consistent  with  the  knowledge  of  the 
destination  of  mankind. 

(e.)  In  a  life  in  oneness  with  God,  and  oneness  with 

humanity. 

The  sacrifice  of  the  Christ. 
The  law  of  sacrifice. 
The  redemption  through  love. 
The  redemption  through  knowledge. 
The  redemption  through  sacrifice. 
The  work  of  the  Christ  the  fulfillment  of  the  will  of 

God. 
The  work  of  the  Christ  the  manifestation  of  the  love  of 

God. 
The  world  is  not  redeemed  through  a  legend  nor  through 

a  scheme  of  divinity. 
The  end  of  the  redemption. 
The  deliverance  from  evil. 

The  redemption  is  from  sin  and  unto  righteousness. 
The  redemption  is  from  the  slavery  of  sin  into  the  free- 
dom of  God. 


Vlii  CONTENTS. 

PAOH 

The  redemption  of  every  creature. 

The  final  cause  of  the  world  manifest  in  the  redemption 
of  the  world. 

The  relation  of  the  redemption  to  eternal  life. 

The  communion  of  earth  and  heaven. 

The  death  of  the  Christ  brings  to  life  its  infinite  signifi- 
cance. 

CHAPTER  X. 

THE  LIFE  OF  THE  SPIRIT 207 

The  coming  of  the  Spirit. 

The  going  away  of  the  Christ,  the  manifestation  and  re- 
alization of  the  divine  relations  of  humanity. 

The  procession  of  the  Spirit. 

The  Church  the  witness  to  the  continuing  life  of  the 
Christ  in  the  world. 

The  Church ;  the  communion  of  saints. 

The  Scriptures. 

The  Scriptures;  the  record  of  the  revelation  of  God. 

The  Scriptures  ;  the  difference,  in  their  method,  from 
the  religious  books  of  the  world. 

The  Sacraments. 

The  Sacraments;  the  manifestation  of  the  character  and 
end  of  domestic  and  national  worship. 

The  coming  of  the  Spirit ;  the  Lord  and  Giver  of  Life. 

The  law  of  Christ,  the  law  of  humanity. 

The  foundation  of  human  society. 

The  prayer  of  human  society,  "  Show  me  thy  righteous- 
ness." 

The  realization  of  manhood. 

The  resurrection. 

The  ascension. 

The  conquest  of  death. 

The  new  heavens  and  new  earth  wherein  dwelleth  right- 
eousness. 

*#*  The  references  to  the  Scriptures  are  in  a  few  instances  nee 
essarily  a  paraphrase,  simply  conveying  the  substance;   but   these 
may  be  readily  verified,  and  in  some  instances  another  translation 
has  been  given,  but  only  when  sustained  by  the  most  critical  author- 
ities. 

MONTROSE,    SUSQUEHANNA  COUNTY.   1*ENN. 


THE  REPUBLIC  OF  GOD. 
CHAPTER  I. 

THE   BEING   OF   GOD. 

THE  being  of  God  is  the  precedent  and  the 
postulate  of  the  thought  of  God.  It  is  the  ground 
in  man  of  his  conscious  life.  From  the  beginning, 
and  with  the  growth  of  the  human  consciousness, 
there  is  the  consciousness  of  the  being  of  God, 
and  of  a  relation  to  God. 

Man  is  conscious  of  the  being  of  the  external 
world,  and  lives  and  acts  in  this  consciousness,  and 
the  being  of  the  external  world  so  comes  to  be  ap- 
prehended by  him.  And,  further,  man  is  con- 
scious of  the  being  of  God,  and  lives  and  acts  in 
this  consciousness,  and  the  reality  of  the  being  of 
God  so  comes  to  him. 

We  cannot  deduce  the  being  of  Qod  from  the 
existence  of  the  world,  nor  the  eternal  from  the 
temporal,  nor  the  infinite  from  the  finite ;  and  yet 
the  temporal  has  its  ground  in  the  eternal,  and 


2  THE  BEING  OF  GOD. 

the  finite  in  the  infinite.  The  eternal  is  not  the 
continuation  of  the  temporal,  nor  the  infinite  the 
extension  of  the  finite,  and  God  is  not  the  se- 
quence nor  the  limitation  of  the  world. 

In  this  process  of  the  consciousness  of  the  be- 
ing of  God,  man  does  not  start  from  the  finite  ex- 
istence which  is  within  the  conditions  of  space  and 
time,  —  that  which  consequently  is  placed.1  Being 
is  of  itself,  in  finite  conditions,  a  vacant  phase  of 
thought.  It  is  not  that  we  have  to  ask  its  applica- 
tion, as  derived  from  the  finite  existences,  to  God. 

The  notion  of  God  is  derivative  from  the  being 
of  God.  It  is  not  necessary  to  supplement  the 
notion  of  God  with  the  empty  category  of  being 
as  derived  from  finite  conditions.2 

1  "We  must  find  something  like  God  before  we  reach  God,  or  we 
shall  not  in  our  thoughts  attain  unto  him."     (Bascom,  Philosophy 
of  Religion,  p.  74.)     It  is  necessarily  the  reverse  of  this.    We  know 
God,  and  then  we  find  that  which  in  a  higher  or  lower  measure  is 
like  him. 

2  Kant  (Werke,  vol.  i.  p.  90)  does  not  prove  the  difference  between 
being  and  notion.     It  is  assumed  in  a  popular  way,  but  it  is  a  phase 
of  thought  which  applies  only  to  imperfect  or  incomplete  things. 

Thus,  in  society  the  state  advances  in  its  normal  process  into  the 
realization  of  the  idea  of  the  state,  and  the  course  of  the  physical 
world  may  be  a  development,  after  its  germinal  or  radical  type, 
through  the  succession  of  its  forms.  But  this  process  does  not  per- 
tain to  the  being  of  God.  He  is  not  the  sequence  of  an  evolution, 
though  his  manifestation  may  be  through  the  process  of  an  evolu- 
tion. God  is  the  perfect  being,  and  incompleteness  does  not  attach 
to  him. 

If  Kant's  postulate  is  correct  we  can  know  nothing  of  God  ;  we 
can  make  up  various  notions  about  God,  but  that  is  not  to  say  tha* 


THE  CONSCIOUSNESS   OF  GOD.  3 

The  being  of  God  is  not  an  attribute  which  is 
to  be  appended  to  some  abstract  notion  of  reality, 
or  of  the  sum  of  all  realities,  or  to  the  notion  of 
perfection,  and  if  it  were  in  this  constructive 
method  to  be  thus  apprehended,  it  would  have  the 
place  of  an  attribute  and  not  of  the  subject. 

Thus  it  is  not  necessary  to  the  knowledge  of 
the  being  of  God  to  assume  that  it  is  one  among 
several  objects  of  immediate  intuition  ;  nor  that 
it  is  a  requisition  of  the  emotions,  —  the  require- 
ment that  there  shall  be  placed  before  them  the 
highest  end  ;  nor  that  it  is  arrived  at,  as  a  con- 
clusion, through  the  formulas  of  logic. 

The  knowledge  of  God  thenceforth,  in  this  pro- 
cess of  consciousness,  comes  through  experience. 
It  is  the  experience  of  the  individual  and  the  fam- 
ily and  the  nation  in  the  life  of  humanity. 

The  being  of  God  is  the  primal  truth.  It  is 
primitive  in  human  thought :  there  is  nothing  be- 
fore it  nor  apart  from  it,  from  which  it  is  to  be 
derived.  Thus  the  being  of  God  has  not  its  foun- 
dation in  the  life  of  humanity,  but  humanity  has 
its  foundation  in  the  life  of  God.  Theology  has 
not  its  ground  in  psychology. 

The  idea  of  God  is  in  and  with  and  through  the 

these  notions  are  so,  nor  is  the  existence  of  God  implied  by  them, 
See  Hegel's  Philosophic  der  Religion,  vol.  ii.  p.  214. 


4  THE  BEING  OF  GOD. 

being  of  God.  The  idea  and  the  being  of  God 
are  one.  In  Him  is  the  oneness  of  the  ideal  and 
the  real.  It  is  only  in  and  from  the  being  of  God 
that  we  discern  the  infinite  and  the  eternal  in 
their  realization.1 

The  infinite  is  not  subject  to  the  conditions  of 
the  finite,  nor  the  eternal  to  the  conditions  of  the 
temporal.  In  the  physical  process  we  can  attain 
only  to  the  negative  infinite,  the  temporal  and 
spatial  infinite,  that  is,  the  quantitative  infinite. 
The  imagination  is  dissatisfied  with  this,  and  passes 
beyond  it,  but  only  through  its  ideal  qualities. 
That  the  conditions  and  conclusions  of  thought 
are  not  the  same  in  the  finite  —  the  temporal  and 
spatial  —  is  no  argument  against  this  position.2 

1  It  has  been  said  of  one  form  of  the  ontological  argument,  *«  It 
infers  the  being  of  God  from  the  ideal  necessity  of  being  to  the  con- 
ception of  infinite  attributes.     It  thus  accepts  a  connection  of  ideas 
as  a  proof  of  facts."  (Bascom,  Philosophy  of  Religion,  p.  60.)    This  is 
critical  of  a  merely  formal  process  of  thought  that  assumes  "  infinite 
attributes,"  and  then  assumes  "  being  "  also,  as  an  attribute  that  is 
attached  to  them  through  a  "  connection  of  ideas."     But  in  the  on- 
tological argument  strictly  there  is  no  "  connection  of  ideas  "  as- 
sumed.    For  the  idea  and  the  being  of  God  are  one,  and  it  is  only 
in  and  from  the  being  of  God  that  we  discern  what  are  called  his 
"infinite  attributes." 

Again,  it  is  not  from  the  notion  of  a  perfect  being  —  "  the  con- 
ception of  infinite  attributes  "  — that  the  reality  of  being  is  deduced, 
for  the  argument  does  not  assume  an  attribute  of  perfection  to  which 
existence  is  to  be  appended,  and  if  existence  be  an  attribute  or  per- 
fection of  God  it  must  take  the  place  of  an  attribute  and  not  of  the 
subject. 

2  The  ontological  argument  of  S.  Anselm,  as  it  has  been  represent- 
ed in  the  interpretation  of  a  school  of  formal  logic,  has  for  its  postu- 


THE  CONSCIOUSNESS  OF  GOD.  5 

There  is  no  demonstration  of  the  being  of  God. 
It  is  itself  the  principle  of  demonstration.  In 
every  mode  of  demonstration  whose  object  is  to 
arrive  at  it,  it  is  assumed.  It  can  form  no  term 
in  the  formulas  of  logic.  It  is  not  a  truth  which 
is  to  be  counted  among  the  achievements  of  human 
thought.  There  can  be  no  demonstration  of  the 
being  of  God  by  man:  there  may  be  the  manifes- 
tation of  God  to  man. 

The  name  of  God  is  that  name  which  passes 
into  the  common  forms  of  thought.  In  its  deriva- 
tion it  may  have  an  ethical  significance.  It  has 

late  the  thought  of  a  perfect  being — a  being  than  which  none 
greater  can  be  conceived,  and  then  it  attaches  the  attribute  of  being 
to  the  thought  as  necessary  to  its  perfection  —  as  that  lacking  which 
it  would  lack  perfection. 

But  S.  Anselm's  argument  strictly  is  as  follows:  God  is  something 
than  which  nothing  greater  can  be  conceived:  but  that  cannot  be 
in  the  intellect  alone.  If  it  were  only  a  thought  it  might  be  con- 
ceived as  existing,  and  that  would  be  something  greater,  therefore 
existence  is  necessarily  implied  in  it. 

The  representation  of  S.  Anselm's  argument  by  a  school  of  formal 
logic,  as  Hegel  «says,  implies  an  antithesis  of  thought  and  being. 
But  S.  Anselm  compares  two  modes  of  conceiving  the  perfect  be- 
ing, that  which  conceives  him  as  a  mere  abstraction,  simply  an 
object  of  thought,  and  that  which  conceives  him  as  really  existing, 
and  he  maintains  that  so  long  as  God  is  conceived  only  as  an  object 
of  thought — that  is,  as  a  product  of  the  human  mind  —  we  do  not 
conceive  that  than  which  nothing  greater  can  be  conceived,  in  which 
the  definition  of  God  consists.  Thus  Hegel  says:  "  The  profound 
thought  which  the  argument  involves  has  acquired  a  false  and  shal- 
low aspect  from  being  forced  into  the  form  of  a  conclusion  of  the 
understanding."  See  Hegel's  Philosophic  der  Religion,  vol.  ii. p.  541; 
Hedge's  Ways  of  ike  Spirit,  p.  176. 


6  THE  BEING  OF  GOD. 

a  definite  place  in  the  language  and  literature  of 
English-speaking  men.  The  substitution  for  it  of 
forms  which  denote  some  special  phase  of  thought 
is  an  indication  of  weakness.  These  terms  are 
often  the  sequence  of  an  argument  for  the  being 
of  God.  They  often  have  the  stamp  of  certain 
schools  upon  them.  Thus  the  term  "  supreme  be- 
ing "  implies  the  notion  of  being  which  is  rela- 
tively more  and  higher  than  other  forms  of  being.1 
It  has  no  content,  and  implies  only  the  empty 
abstraction  of  indeterminate,  but  yet  relative,  be- 
ing. It  has  not  a  certain  strength  which  is  in  the 
term  "central  being,"  as  in  Dante's  phrase,  "  truth 
deep  as  the  centre."  The  term  "  first  cause  "  in- 
dicates only  one,  if  it  be  counted  the  first,  in 
the  sequence  of  the  forces  of  the  world,  and  these 
forces  often  apparently  move  through  forms  ad- 
vancing from  less  to  greater.  The  term  "  provi- 
dence "  indicates  a  notion  as  to  the  determina- 
tion of  these  forces,  in  what  it  further  defines  as 
a  special  or  general  way  toward  a  certain  end. 
These  phrases  were  widely  prevalent  in  the  style 
of  the  last  century.  The  terms  "  the  absolute," 
which  is  characteristic  of  the  Greek  thought,  and 

1  This  phrase  is  used  by  Edwards,  and  becomes  the  basis  of  his 
theory  of  the  nature  of  virtue,  the  love  of  the  more  and  higher  over 
the  less  and  lower  being,  which  has  thus  only  a  quantitative  charac- 
ter. An  ethical  content  is  imported  from  some  incidental  reference, 
or  some  other  writings  of  Edwards,  but  it  is  lacking  in  his  theory  of 
virtue.  The  same  conception  is  carried,  in  another  form,  into  the 
sovereignty  of  God,  which  is  thus  a  bare  sovereignty,  —  the  starker 
stronger  force. 


THE   COSMOLOGICAL  ARGUMENT.  7 

"  the  infinite"  and  "  the  eternal/'  are  more  signifi- 
cant and  comprehensive  than  the  preceding,  and 
denote  the  high  service  of  philosophy.  Thus  the 
terms  "  the  word,"  or  "  the  divine  word,"  or  "  the 
eternal  word,"  indicate  a  truth  of  the  deepest  sig- 
nificance, while  yet  they  retain,  in  their  literal 
form,  the  trace  of  certain  schools  and  epochs,  and 
recall  their  relation  to  these  in  the  history  of  phi- 
losophy. 

The  evidence  of  the  being  of  God  from  the 
being  and  condition  of  the  physical  world  is  not 
to  be  traced  in  the  common  lines  of  thought  in 
which  this  argument  is  presented.  The  argument 
which  has  this  inference  for  its  object  has  been 
called,  in  the  term  of  the  schools,  the  cosmological 
argument. 

A  special  form  of  this  argument  is  based  upon 
the  notion  of  causality.  The  process  of  causality 
appears  in  the  physical  process.  But  causality 
here  is  the  transference  of  force.  And  the  cause 
is  always  contained  in  the  effect,  and  the  effect 
measures  the  cause  from  which  it  proceeds.  We 
cannot  transcend  the  effect  as  we  pass  through 
the  being  and  condition  of  the  physical  world  to 
its  cause.  And  the  law  of  causality,  which  is  ad- 
duced, itself  forbids  a  stop  in  its  numeric  preces- 
sion, which  is  to  be  designated  as  a  first  cause,  it- 
self having  no  precedent.  This  would  subvert  the 
very  principle  which  is  assumed  as  the  foundation 


8  THE  BEING  OF  GOD. 

of  the  whole  structure.  And  the  cause,  which  is 
physical,  can  be  invested  with  no  other  qualities, 
for  instance,  with  no  intellectual  or  moral  quality 
which  is  not  in  the  effect. 

The  argument  aims  to  transcend  the  physical 
process  by  the  application  of  a  law  in  which  that 
process  and  the  persistence  of  that  process  are 
constantly  implied.  There  is  no  recession  through 
which  we  pass,  in  the  process  of  the  physical  world 
with  its  finite  changes,  to  the  being  of  God.1 

But  the  mind  of  man  is  left  unsatisfied.  It  is 
still  led  to  follow  that  which  is  beyond  and  still 
beyond. 

There  is  an  argument  derived  from  the  being 
and  condition  of  the  physical  world,  on  the  ground 
that  the  universe  bears  traces  of  intelligence,  —  of 
thought  and  will.  This  has  been  called  the  argu- 
ment from  design,  —  the  teleological  argument. 

This  argument  in  one  form  rests  on  an  analogy 
between  the  physical  process  and  the  works  of 
man ;  as  when  from  the  design,  in  the  tools,  the 
buildings,  and  the  streets,  we  infer  a  designer  of 
them.  This  strictly  would  involve  by  way  of  an- 
alogy, man  as  an  animal,  and  then,  also,  other  ani- 
mals of  certain  lower  forms,  as  the  bird  that  builds 
a  nest,  and  the  insect  that  makes  a  cell. 

But  while  man  as  involved  in  this  physical  pro- 

1  "  The  universe  lies  forever  back  of  the  universe."     (Bascom, 
Philosophy  of  Religion,  p.  41.) 


THE  TELEOLOGICAL  ARGUMENT.  9 

cess  has  intelligence,  this  product  cannot  carry  us 
beyond  the  process  itself  in  which  it  exists.  The 
indications  of  intelligence,  moreover,  are  not  lim- 
ited to  conscious  action,  but  they  appear  in  un- 
conscious movements,  as  in  the  structural  uses  and 
functions  of  the  human  body.  The  argument,  in- 
stead of  showing  thought  as  antecedent,  shows 
it  as  pervading  the  whole,  and  in  a  process  whose 
apparent  mode  of  operation  is  that  of  necessity.1 

And  there  are  in  the  works  of  man  other  and 
higher  qualities  than  those  which  appear  in  the 
physical  process.  The  music  of  the  storm,  of  the 
sweep  of  the  surges  of  the  ocean,  is  not  so  impres- 
sive as  that  of  great  orchestras.  The  tree  that 
sways  in  the  wind  has  no  tones  to  compare  with 
those  that  are  brought  out  by  the  viol  and  the 
flute.  It  is  the  human  element  that  gives  to  the 
landscape  its  deepest  attraction. 

It  is  said  in  the  old  phrase,  that  in  the  physical 
process  there  is  an  adaptation  of  means  to  an  end. 
But  if  this  phrase  be  allowed  an  application  to 
the  physical  process  it  is  only  the  evidence  of  in- 
telligence, and  the  degree  of  intelligence  is  in  the 
completeness  of  the  adaptation  of  the  means  to 
the  end.  This  adaptation  is  also  modified  by  the 
relative  imperfection  of  the  physical  process,  which 

1  "  Thj  oeing  that  emerges  under  the  teleological  proof  is  the 
universe  itself,  as  an  organic  unconscious  conscious  being.  The 
teleological  argument  breaks  down,  not  because  it  does  not  reach  in- 
telligence, but  because  it  includes  it,  and  includes  it  among  neces- 
sary forces."  (Bascom,  Philosophy  of  Religion,  p.  68.) 


10  THE  BEING  OF  GOD. 

appears  in  the  fact,  for  instance,  that  in  every  class 
or  species  the  individuals  are  comparatively  few 
that  attain  to  the  normal  type.  In  any  evolu- 
tion of  forms  the  variations  are  but  slowly  ef- 
fected, and  the  forms  displaced  still  in  some  in- 
stances remain,  and  in  individuals  recur  when  all 
use  for  them  is  gone.  This  led  Hegel  to  say,  that 
in  the  physical  process  the  idea  is  slowly  and  with 
difficulty  developed,  and  in  its  processes  there  are 
many  divergences,  as  if  nature  were  not  always 
very  clear  in  her  own  intent.  There  is,  however, 
in  the  physical  process  only  the  evidence  of  adap- 
tation to  the  circumjacent  condition,  and  not  to  a 
determinate  end.  And  this  adaptation  of  means 
to  an  end,  or  of  the  individual  to  the  environment, 
bears,  in  the  physical  process,  the  evidence  of  no 
moral  quality.1  In  the  physical  process,  the  beak 

1  The  witches  in  Macbeth,  that  are  gathered  on  the  lonely  heath 
in  "  fog  and  foul  air,"  stand  very  near  to  nature.  They  begin  their 
strain  of  dolor,  with 

"  Fair  is  foul,  and  foul  is  fair," 

in  her  indifference.  They  gather  at  hand,  to  throw  into  their  seeth- 
ing cauldron, 

"  Eye  of  newt  and  toe  of  frog, 
Wool  of  bat  and  tongue  of  dog, 
Adder's  fork,  and  blind-worm's  sting." 

Macbeth  calls  to  them  in  the  same  moral  indifference,  out  of  the 
course  of  nature, 

"Though  the  yesty  waves 

Confound  and  swallow  navigation  up; 

Though  bladed  corn  be  lodged  and  trees  blown  down ; 

Though  castles  topple  on  their  warders'  heads ; 

Though  palaces  and  pyramids  do  slope 

Their  heads  to  their  foundations ;  though  the  treasure 


THE  TELEOLOGICAL  ARGUMENT.  H 

and  talons  of  the  hawk  are  adapted  to  clutch  its 
prey  with  almost  no  pause  in  its  swift  flight.  The 
flower  is  formed  for  the  distillation  of  poison,  and 
plants  which  are  useful  are  so  mimicked  by  those 
which  are  hurtful  that  only  constant  scrutiny,  after 
fatal  experiences,  can  detect  the  difference.  The 
toadstool  grows  close  by  the  mushroom.  The  fruit 
which  the  tempter  found  already  growing  was  fair 
to  the  eye.  Hegel  says,  the  earth  declares  the 
goodness  of  God,  and  that  his  goodness  appears  in 
this  adaptation  of  means  to  an  end,  but  it  is  only 
when  this  physical  process  is  considered  with  ref- 
erence to  that  which  is  beyond  it,  to  an  end  which 
it  brings  not  within  our  observation,  that  these 
words  are  justified. 

The  conditions  of  this  process  are  those  of  con- 
flict, a  struggle  for  existence,  it  is 

"  The  rack  of  this  tough  world," 

and  one  form  passes  beyond  another  form  by  sur- 

Of  nature's  germens  tumble  all  together, 
Even  till  destruction  sicken;  answer  me." 

Macbeth,  Act  IV.,  Scene  1. 

Man,  as  involved  in  the  physical  process,  and  as  an  object  of 
physical  science,  in  a  school  which  holds  these  limitations,  has  no 
other  dignity  than  attaches  to  any  other  animal.  His  cunning  may 
outmatch  the  fox,  but  it  has  no  other  quality;  his  powers  of  digestion 
are  the  same  as  those  of  the  rat;  the  fly  does  copulate  as  he;  the 
dog  may  quarrel  with  him  for  his  food;  the  shark  may  prey  upon 
him,  as  he  on  the  shark,  and  with  advantage  when  it  finds  him  in  its 
own  element;  he  learns  the  conditions  of  physical  existence  from  the 
anatomy  of  other  animals;  vegetable  and  animal  parasites  grow  aiid 
feed  on  him;  his  life  as  involved  in  the  physical  process  has  no  other 
dignity,  it  is  of  the  earth,  earthy. 


12  THE  BEING   OF   GOD. 

vival.  There  are  in  nature  elements  of  subsist- 
ence for  production  and  for  destruction.  One 
race  to  subsist  must  prey  with  ravin  upon  an- 
other race.1  There  is  the  adaptation  of  the  wing  of 
the  crow  and  of  the  tooth  of  the  shark.  There  is 
a  strange  intermingling  in  the  poison  that  fills  the 
chalice  of  the  most  beautiful  flower,  the  malaria 
that  is  borne  upon  the  softest  airs,  the  color  that 
gleams  resplendently  in  the  sinuous  folds  of  the 
serpent.  There  is  the  fair  light  that  illumines  the 
dawn  and  empurples  the  evening,  but  throws  its 
radiance  over  mists  and  exhalations.  There  are 
smooth  waters  that  bear  the  reflection  of  the 
clouds  which  hold  the  tempest,  and  are  changed 
with  the  clouds  which  burst  over  them  into  the 
rage  of  cruel  seas.  The  tides  rise  and  fall  with 
almost  changeless  precision,  but  they  are  swept  by 
the  storm  that  marks  their  lines  with  wreck.  By 
the  cleft  and  broken  strata  of  the  rocks,  one  may 
still  seem  to  hear 

"  the  sea  rehearse 
Its  ancient  song  of  chaos.' 

1  There  is  a  school  which  assumes  the  identity  of  God  with  the 
physical  process  of  the  world,  or  with  what  it  calls  "  the  nature  of 
things."  It  identifies  God  actually  with  the  course  of  physical  nat- 
ure, with  the  nature  of  things  in  the  current  physical  condition  of 
the  world.  Then  that  which  is  apparently  inexorable  and  cruel  is 
directly  ascribed  to  him.  That  which  in  its  transient  course  is  dark 
is  ascribed  to  Him  in  whom  is  light  and  no  darkness.  But  it  would  not 
be  true  even  to  assert  the  identity  of  man  thus  with  the  nature  of 
things.  It  would  be  a  degradation  of  man  in  whom  is  the  life  of  the 
spirit. 


THE  TELEOLOGICAL  ARGUMENT.  13 

There  is  in  nature  that  which  is  beautiful  and  that 
which  is  fantastic  and  monstrous.  These  aspects 
of  nature  become  more  apparent  in  tropical  coun- 
tries, where  there  is  a  stronger  movement  of  the 
impulse,  the  passion  of  nature,  with  more  im- 
petuous energies.  Thus  in  India  there  are  more 
images  and  shrines  of  supplication  to  Siva  the  de- 
stroyer, than  to  Brahma  the  creator,  and  Yishnu 
the  preserver. 

For  individuals  and  races  this  physical  process 
is  one  of  successive  survivals  followed  by  cessa- 
tions of  existence.  There  is  the  extinction  in  this 
succession  of  individuals  and  races,  and  whatever 
may  be  the  effect  of  means,  or  of  conformance  to 
that  which  is  contingent,  death  is  the  end.  The 
research  of  geology  indicates  the  mutations  of 
cold  and  heat,  through  long  epochs  and  over  vast 
continents,  which  would  bring  a  termination  to 
every  form  of  life  within  our  knowledge.  We 
may  admit  the  strength  of  the  force  working  in 
material  moulds,  and  the  persistence  of  the  move- 
ment in  this  evolution  which  slowly  modifies  itself 
with  its  environment,  and  maintains  unbroken  ad- 
hesion to  its  types,  but  there  is  no  evidence  that 
that  which  is  lower  is  always  displaced  by  that 
which  is  higher,  nor  that  any  displacement  is  per- 
manent.1 

1  It  has  been  truly  said  that  the  Darwinian  is  the  derivative,  not 
the  development  hypothesis.  It  is  not  always  from  the  lower  to  the 
higher,  nor  in  that  sense  does  the  fittest  survive.  Strictly  it  fur- 


14  THE  BEING  OF  GOD. 

These  indications  of  ugliness,  of  rapacity,  of 
cruelty  in  nature,  it  is  said,  are  on  the  whole  not 
to  be  noticed.  But  they  are  there.  They  per- 
vade the  whole,  and  are  involved  in  the  whole 
process  of  the  physical  world.  They  have  in  cer- 
tain lands  and  ages  a  potency  that  overmasters 
the  imagination  and  fills  it  with  images  of  dread, 
and  so  they  mould  the  thoughts  of  men,  as  they 
have  found  expression  in  literature  and  art.  It  is 
said  that  a  balance  is  to  be  struck  between  the 
fair  and  foul,  the  beneficent  and  cruel ;  but  this, 
however  the  balance  swayed,  would  only  indicate, 
and  in  that  exact  degree,  a  mixed  quality  of  indif- 
ferent good  and  evil  in  the  intelligence  which 
formed  the  world,  or  appears  in  the  evolution  of 
its  forms.1 

Irishes  evidence  only  of  the  survival  of  the  one  best  adapted  to  the 
situation,  nor  does  it  furnish  evidence  that  the  situation  materially 
improves  ;  on  the  contrary  there  are  indications  that  would  show  the 
recurrence  at  long,  and  it  may  be,  periodic  intervals,  of  ages  of 
gradual  extinction,  as  the  geological  ages  of  ice.  And  while,  in  the 
physical  process  from  and  through  geological  periods,  there  has 
been  in  physical  forms  apparently  an  increase  in  the  complexity  of 
organization,  there  has  been  a  diminution  of  physical  force  and 
bulk. 

1  This  argument  in  one  form  is  based  on  the  order  in  nature. 
Janet  says  "  the  order  supposes  an  end,  and  the  very  principle  of 
order  is  the  end."  (Final  Causes,  p.  215.)  The  doctrine  of  final 
causes  has  its  justification  in  philosophy.  But  in  the  physical  pro- 
cess there  is  no  evidence  for  a  final  cause  and  end,  nor  against  it, 
and  no  evidence  of  the  character  of  that  end.  There  are  around 
us  only  the  circling  suns  — flamentia  mcenia  mundi.  This  argument 
identifies  the  current,  the  existent  process  with  order,  and  then  as- 
sumes that  this  order,  which  is  the  existent  process,  is  the  final  cause 


THE   TELEOLOGICAL  ARGUMENT.  15 

There  is  in  the  process  of  the  physical  world  no 
moral  quality,  no  manifestation  of  the  will,  as  in 
the  life  of  the  spirit;  it  is  as  Hegel  says,  "  the 
other  "  of  the  spirit :  it  is  only  elevated  and  in- 
formed with  a  moral  attainment  through  the  me- 
diation of  the  spirit. 

There  is  in  the  physical  process  no  manifesta- 
tion of  freedom,  nor  is  it  in  man,  as  he  is  involved 
in  the  physical  process.  There  is  in  it  no  trace  of 
personality. 

There  is  in  nature  no  strain  of  sympathy  that 
breaks  its  indifference,  no  love  interrupts  its  inex- 
orable course.  No  appeal  can  stay  its  falling  rocks. 
No  entreaty  can  restrain  its  beating  waves.  It 
has  no  power  to  help  man  in  his  calamity.  It 
does  not  turn  to  avert  his  injury,  nor  to  mitigate 
his  pain.  The  clown  says  to  the  old  man  in  the 
storm  — 

"Here  's  a  night  that  pities 
Neither  wise  men  nor  fools." 

It  is  only  in  a  figurative  way  that  there  is  any 
declaration  of  a  moral  quality  in  the  physical 
process.  It  is  simply  without  the  moral. 

and  end.    This  is  simply  a  change  of  phrases,  while  the  actualization 
is  the  same. 

The  end  of  this  order  for  individuals  and  races  is  death,  and  the 
inference  is  that  this  order  is  continuous.  And  order  is  not  so  pro- 
found a  conception  as  life,  and,  in  the  physical  process,  the  final 
cause  and  end  of  life  is  death.  The  adaptation  to  a  circumjacent 
condition  may  be  a  degradation  with  the  extinction  of  higher  ener- 
gies. This  process  is  not  in  any  moment  in  itself  what  Renan  calls 
it,  "  an  eternal  order,"  nor  the  end  in  nature. 


16  THE  BEING  OF  GOD. 

These  facts  must  be  brought  into  a  more  pro- 
found synthesis,  and  it  is  the  merit  of  the  cos- 
mological  argument,  however  crude  and  deficient, 
that  it  has  made  an  effort  toward  this. 

In  this  synthesis,  the  oneness  of  the  life  of  man 
in  its  physical  process  with  the  physical  process  of 
the  world,  the  physical  conditions  of  the  attain- 
ment of  the  ethical  life  ;  the  recognition  of  the 
finiteness  of  the  finite,  the  transience  of  the 
transient  in  the  world,  through  the  negation  of 
the  finite,  and  the  fulfillment  of  the  finite  in  its 
life  in  the  infinite ;  and  the  necessity  of  reconcil- 
iation for  the  satisfaction  of  the  spirit,  —  these 
are  brought  to  their  resolution  in  thought.  These 
are  postulates  of  this  synthesis  that  have  found 
expression  in  the  most  profound  and  enduring 
forms  of  the  religion  and  the  philosophy  of  the 
world. 

It  is  not  from  the  physical  process  with  its  finite 
conditions  that  there  is  the  evidence  of  the  being 
of  God.  There  is  no  discovery  of  him  in  the 
furthest  research  into  the  elements  of  the  suns, 
no  traces  of  him  in  the  strata  of  the  rocks,  there 
is  no  finding  of  him  at  the  roots  of  the  tree,  or  in 
the  dust  of  the  stars.1 

1  "It  is  indeed  not  on  the  finite  ground  occupied  by  the  physical 
sciences  that  we  can  expect  to  meet  the  indwelling  presence  of  the 
infinite,  and  thus  Lalande  has  said,  he  had  swept  the  whole  heavens 
with  his  glass  and  seen  no  God."  (Hegel,  Encyklopadie,  vol.  L 
p.  128.) 

"  Though  we  allow  that  this  argument  from  design  and  therefore 


THE  MORAL  ARGUMENT.  17 

The  thought  of  man  passes  through  the  physi- 
cal process  to  the  apprehension,  through  the  suc- 
cession of  its  phenomena,  of  the  universal,  but  this 
is  only  by  its  ideal  quality. 

Thus  the  transient  recalls  to  the  mind  that 
which  is  not  itself  transient,  and  is  not  subject  to 
transient  conditions.  The  flower  fades  while  the 
maiden  gazes  upon  it,  but  with  it  beauty  itself 
does  not  fade  :  that  is  imperishable.  But  nature 
in  herself  does  not  intimate  this.  The  beauty 
that  fades  with  the  fading  flower  is  cast  aside  by 
her  with  weeds  and  worn-out  faces. 

There  is  in  the  physical  process  a  necessity, 
and  there  are  relations  of  sequence,  from  which 
may  be  derived  the  inference  of  natural  laws,  a 
law  of  nature.  This  necessity  is,  however,  not 
inconsistent  with  the  attainment  of  freedom,  al- 
though freedom  has  not  its  manifestation  or  reali- 
zation in  it.  It  always  subsists  as  an  element  in 
freedom,  and  may  be  taken  up  and  transmuted 
into  freedom.  There  is,  whatever  may  be  the  ex- 
tent of  its  range,  a  mode  of  action  or  a  law  of 
the  physical  process  by  which  that  which  is  lower 
may  be  carried  on  to  that  which  is  higher,  and 
retained  as  a  moment  in  the  higher.1  Thus  man, 

a  designer,  furnishes  an  explanation  of  physical  phenomena,  the  fad 
of  an  infinite  and  perfect  being  does  not  follow."  (Hedge,  Wayy 
of  the  Spirit,  p.  161.) 

1  "  In  the  gradual  series  of  earthly  existences  the  law  holds  good 
that  the  higher  essence  takes  up  into  it  the  character  of  the  lower 
as  a  moment."     (Ueberweg,  History  of  Logical  Doctrines,  p.  93.) 
3 


18  THE  BEING  OF  GOD. 

who  is  representative  of  the  higher  forms  of  life, 
is  connected  with  the  lowest  forms,  and  subject  to 
the  incident  of  the  lowest  conditions  of  earth. 
Thus  necessity  inheres  as  an  element  in  freedom, 
but  it  is  taken  up  and  transmuted  in  freedom. 
Therefore  man  may  advance  through  the  school 
of  necessity  toward  freedom.  There  is  always 
the  institution  and  recognition  of  law  in  the  real- 
ization of  freedom  in  the  nation.  Thus  instead  of 
forming  an  adverse  element  in  the  freedom  of  the 
will,  necessity  is  involved  and  transmuted  in  it. 
There  is  in  freedom  the  negation  and  transporta- 
tion of  necessity.  But  one  is  not  therefore  to 
identify  the  presence  of  necessity,  the  current  of 
physical  forces,  with  freedom  or  the  will  in  the 
realization  of  personality.1 

There  is  in  man  the  recognition  of  the  limita- 
tions of  nature.  But  in  recognizing  this  limit, 
and  in  defining  it  as  limit,  he  has  himself  over- 

Ueberweg  finds  an  intimation  of  tins  doctrine  which  has  had  so 
wide  an  application  in  recent  philosophy,  and  so  wide  an  illustration 
in  recent  science,  in  the  school  of  Pythagoras. 

1  In  Mr.  Martineau's  argument  the  conception  of  the  will  in  man 
as  a  person  is  inserted  into,  and  carried  by  transfer  over  to  the  phys- 
ical process.  This  would  identify  the  will  with  mere  force,  and 
force  acting  in  and  through  necessity.  It  is  true  that  necessity  is 
an  element  in  the  freedom  of  the  will,  and  the  education  of  the 
will  at  its  first  schooling  is  through  necessity  in  the  course  of  human 
life.  But  the  physical  process  is  not  in  its  courses  of  necessity  in 
identity  with  the  will  in  personality.  The  conception  of  the  will 
derived  from  the  process  of  the  physical  world  in  itself  is  riot  even 
BO  high  as  that  of  fate. 


THE  MOEAL  AKGUMENT.  19 

passed  it.     But  this  implies  an  ideal  element  in 
the  mind  of  man.1 

We  pass  from  the  physical  process  of  the  world 
to  the  historical  process  of  the  world.  The  phys- 
ical process  of  the  world  is  taken  up  and  trans- 
muted in  the  historical  process  of  the  world. 

There  is  an  argument  for  the  being  of  God  de- 
rived from  the  historical  process  of  the  world. 
This  carries  thought  on  to  the  conscious  life  of 
man,  and  the  realization  of  an  ethical  idea  and 
freedom. 

There  is  in  this  ethical  order  the  organization 
and  institution  of  the  family  and  the  nation.  The 
family  is  not  simply  the  product  of  physical  con- 
ditions, to  sustain  no  other  relations  and  to  sub- 
serve no  other  end  ;  and  the  nation  is  not  merely 
the  method  of  physical  life,  and  to  have  its  end 
in  physical  growth  and  bulk.  Thus  Hegel  says, 
"  the  bond  of  the  family  is  in  love  ; "  and  Aris- 
totle says,  "  the  end  of  the  state  is  not  simply  to 
live,  but  to  live  nobly/' 

This  process  of  the  historical  world  which,  in  the 
realization  of  an  ethical  life,  tends  towards  right- 
eousness and  freedom,  must  proceed  from  a  force 
in  which  subsist  qualities  of  righteousness  and 
freedom.  But  these  are  the  qualities  of  the  will. 

1  "  No  one  is  aware  that  anything  is  a  limit  or  defect  until  at 
the  same  time  he  is  above  and  beyond  it."  (Hegel,  Encyklopadie, 
vol.  i.  p.  121.) 


20  THE  BEING  OF  GOD. 

They  are  the  very  elements  of  personality.  The 
energy  working  in  righteousness  and  towards  free- 
dom cannot  be  an  indeterminate  force  as  a  thing, 
and  cannot  be  determined  by  contingency,  as  a 
thing  in  relation  with  a  thing.1 

Thus  it  may  be  said  that  there  is  a  revelation 
in  history  of  the  truth,  or  that  the  foundation  of 
human  society  is  in  the  truth.  But  truth  is  to  be 
apprehended  here  not  as  the  result  of  external  ob- 
servation, and  not  as  a  series  of  abstract  propo- 
sitions to  be  applied  to  the  course  and  conditions 
of  human  life. 

This  is  not  simply  the  construction  and  applica- 
tion of  an  abstract  idea,  but  the  idea  is  realized 
in  and  through  the  determination  of  the  moral 
order  of  the  world.  It  is  realized  in  the  sphere 
of  freedom ;  and  in  freedom  there  is  the  self-de- 
termination which  is  the  integral  element  of  per- 
sonality. 

1  A  recent  writer  finds,  as  the  result  of  his  research,  "  something 
in  us  not  ourselves  that  works  for  righteousness."  It  is  here  and 
now;  it  is  in  us;  it  is  not  ourselves;  it  works  for  righteousness. 
This  tendency,  it  is  said,  is  not  aimless;  it  works  for  righteousness 
and  presumptively  against  unrighteousness.  But  this  is  the  deter- 
mination of  a  will,  and  of  a  will  working  in  freedom,  —  that  is,  in  a 
moral  determination. 

The  writer  inrplies  only  an  empty  notion  of  something  with  its 
drift  or  working.  But  the  inference  is  not  of  an  indefinite  some- 
thing, and  it  is  not  in  things  to  work  for  righteousness.  And  if 
this  be  something  in  us  "  not  ourselves,"  then  man  in  his  own  per- 
sonality, in  the  freedom  of  the  spirit,  must  reject  it  as  alien,  for 
there  can  be  no  ground  of  action  or  of  relation  to  it,  as  there  would 
be  of  a  person  to  a  person. 


THE  MORAL  AEGUMENT.  21 

This  in  one  form  is  the  evidence  of  the  being  of 
God ;  in  another  form  it  is  the  evidence  of  the 
presence  of  God  through  the  courses  of  history 
and  in  the  experience  of  the  life  of  humanity. 


CHAPTER   II. 

THE   PEESONALITY    OF    GOD. 

THE  personalty  of  God  is  implied  in  the  self- 
determination,  —  the  perfect  determination  —  of 
the  being  of  God. 

There  is  in  personality  the  highest  that  is  within 
the  knowledge  of  man.  It  is  the  steepest,  lofti- 
est summit  toward  which  we  move  in  our  attain- 
ment. 

The  germ  and  growth  of  grains  and  plants,  the 
ebb  and  flow  of  waters,  the  rise  and  change  of 
winds,  the  results  of  the  most  recent  inquiry  into 
the  constitution  of  the  suns,  have  not  the  worth 
and  significance  of  personality. 

In  the  course  of  human  life,  the  relations  of  man 
as  a  person  and  with  persons  are  deeper  than  his 
relations  with  that  which  is  impersonal.  That 
which  is  impersonal,  in  so  far  as  it  comes  within 
the  scope  of  our  knowledge,  exists  in  subjection 
to  conditions  of  necessity,  and  has  no  power  to 
transmute  them  in  its  process,  and  does  not  pass 
beyond  them.  It  has  no  self-determination  ;  it  is 
not  determined  from  within,  whatever  be  its  rela- 
tions to  that  which  is  without. 


PERSONALITY.  23 

From  tliat  which  is  personal,  and  as  the  ex- 
pression of  its  life,  have  come  the  arts  and  laws 
and  literatures  of  the  world.  This  appears  in  the 
highest  forms  of  human  thought,  in  some  single 
phase,  in  the  writings  of  ^Eschylus  and  of  Shake- 
speare, and  there  the  personality  of  .ZEschylus  and 
Shakespeare  is  greater  than  their  works,  while 
their  works  give  forms  of  thought  which,  in  their 
elements  of  freedom  through  their  ethical  life  and 
conflict,  are  other  and  higher  than  those  which 
subsist  in  the  necessary  process  of  the  physical 
world. 

That  which  is  personal  is  also  construed  in  the 
institutions  of  society.  It  is  involved  in  the  life 
of  the  family  and  the  nation.  It  exists  in  corre- 
lation with  them,  and  through  them  it  has  its  real- 
ization. There  comes  thence  the  recognition  of 
the  foundation  in  and  through  God,  of  the  life  of 
the  family  and  the  nation,  in  the  historical  courses 
of  the  world. 

The  personality  of  God  is  thus  in  consistence 
with  that  process  of  thought,  through  the  realiza- 
tion of  righteousness  and  freedom,  by  which  there 
comes  the  manifestation  of  God,  and  from  which 
there  is  derivative  the  knowledge  of  God. 

The  personality  of  God  does  not  involve  limita- 
tion. The  only  limitation  is  self -limitation,  —  the 
limit  which  it  sets  in  its  own  self-determination. 


24  THE  PERSONALITY  OF  GOD. 

This  is  its  own  action  and  for  its  own  end,  and 
personality  in  and  through  this  is  manifested. 

Personality  does  not  involve  limitation.  Per- 
sonality has  not  its  ground  in  the  difference  of 
the  me  and  the  not-me,  but  in  the  realization  of 
the  me.  It  has  not  its  ground  external  to  itself 
as  in  the  limitation  of  the  me  by  the  not-me,  but 
it  has  its  ground  within  itself. 

Personality  in  man  exists  among  the  limitations 
of  the  finite,  but  it  has  not  its  ground  in  these 
limitations.  It  is  not  prescribed  and  determined 
by  physical  conditions.  It  is  not  the  consequent 
of  its  circumjacent  condition,  —  and  this,  among 
finite  forms,  would  make  it  only  a  contingency. 
It  is  not  the  result  of  certain  potencies  in  a  phys- 
ical sequence ;  this  would  leave  it  in  their  opera- 
tion merely  a  residuum.  It  has  not  its  end  in  a 
determination  or  dissolution  into  the  elements  of 
the  physical  process. 

The  personality  of  man  in  its  realization  tends 
to  overcome  the  limitations  of  the  finite.  It  does 
this  in  the  assertion  of  its  own  being,  its  own  self- 
determination,  its  own  freedom.  It  recognizes 
these  limitations,  this 

"Muddy  vesture  of  decay 
That  doth  so  grossly  close  us  in." 

It    does    not  here  and  now   exist  beyond   these 
limitations,  but  it  exists  in  them  in  a  life  which 


THE  PERSONALITY  OF  MAN.  25 

is  self-determined,  and  may  not  be  determined  by 
them. 

Personality  in  man  is  impaired  in  the  same 
measure  in  which  it  is  determined  from  without. 
It  suffers,  then,  the  mutations  which  exist  in  the 
necessary  process  of  the  world,  but  it  does  not 
carry  through  them  a  clear  and  increasing  pur- 
pose, and  does  not  transmute  them  into  freedom. 

Personality  with  God  is  in  substance  the  same 
as  personality  in  man.  The  elements  in  the  will, 
and  in  freedom,  and  in  righteousness  are  the  same. 

The  personality  of  God  is  infinite.  There  is 
the  perfect  oneness  of  the  ideal  and  the  real. 
Thought  and  will  with  him  are  one.  In  him  is 
the  absolute  righteousness,  the  eternal  truth,  the 
infinite  life. 

Then  to  man,  in  the  realization  of  his  own  per- 
sonality, there  is  open  the  life  that  is  infinite.  The 
will  of  God  is  manifest  that  man  may  become 
one  with  God.  God  suffers  the  limitations  of  the 
finite  that  man  may  rise  to  the  life  that  is  infinite. 
God  becomes  subject  to  the  conditions  of  time  that 
man  may  enter  into  the  life  that  is  eternal. 

The  personality  of  man  has  its  foundation  in 
the  personality  of  God.  It  could  have  no  lower 
and  no  other  ground,  as  there  is  for  it  the  realiza- 
tion of  the  life  that  is  infinite  and  eternal.1 

1  Lotze  says:  "  Perfect  personality  is  to  be  found  only  in.  God, 


26  THE  PERSONALITY  OF  GOD. 

These  words  are  the  expression  of  a  person, 
Because  I  live,  ye  shall  live  also. 

The  personality  of  man  is  not  to  be  represented 
as  a  reflection  of  the  personality  of  God.  It  is  no 
remote  imitation,  and  no  faint  impression  of  the 
personality  of  God.  It  is  real.  It  has  the  strength 
of  the  free  spirit.  It  moves  among  the  fleeting 
forms  and  fading  images  of  the  finite,  where 
shadow  pursues  shadow,  but  it  is  not  of  them.  In 
the  accident  of  time  it  is  conscious  of  a  life  — 

"  Builded  far  from  accident." 

The  personality  of  God  is  the  ground  of  his  re- 
lation with  the  personality  of  man.  Without  per- 
sonality in  God,  he  would,  so  far  as  the  knowl- 
edge of  man  goes,  be  lower  than  man,  and  with- 
out personality  in  man,  there  would  be  no  ground 
of  relation  to  God. 

while  in  all  finite  spirits  there  exists  only  a  weak  imitation  of  per- 
sonality." (Mikrokosmus,  vol.  iii.  p.  576.)  But  personality  is  real  : 
it  is  most  real.  It  is  not  some  pale  outline,  some  dim  semblance. 
In  its  advance,  even,  it  is  not,  to  use  Shakespeare's  phrase,  merely 
"  a  simular  of  virtue."  When  it  is  said  that  in  man  there  is  only  a 
weak  imitation  of  personality,  the  words  involve  a  contradiction, 
and  in  weak  imitation  personality  is  not  realized  but  impaired. 

Personality  is  real.  It  is  free  and  enters  into  the  freedom  of  God. 
It  advances  in  its  moral  being,  but  this  is  in  the  life  with  God. 

It  advances  through  relations,  but  its  relations  are  not  to  God  as 
to  something  external;  it  is  not  simply  an  external  relation.  Lotze 
says  truly,  "  the  relation  of  a  being  to  another  being  is  not  between 
them  but  in  them."  The  relation,  in  human  life,  of  a  father  and  a 
son,  which  is  but  imperfect  as  the  expression  of  the  relation  of  the 
human  personality  to  the  divine  personality,  is  yet  not  merely  an 
external  relation. 


THE  PERSONALITY  OF  MAN.  27 

The  personality  of  God  is  the  condition  of  the 
communion  of  man  with  God.  If  the  personality 
of  man  was  only  a  weak  resemblance,  and  an 
imperfect  reflection,  then  also,  there  could  be 
no  ground  of  communion.  There  is,  further,  no 
conception  of  knowledge  or  love,  which  are  in- 
volved in  a  communion,  that  man  can  attach  to 
"  a  something  not  ourselves,"  or  "  a  universum," 
or  "  an  unknown,"  and  with  these  terms  and  for- 
mulas there  can  be  no  ground  for  a  communion. 
In  the  course  of  this  human  life,  and  these  human 
relations,  man  is  conscious  of  a  communion  which 
has  other  and  higher  qualities,  and  is  not  formed 
of  physical  elements,  and  is  not  subject  to  their 
conditions.1 

The  personality  of  God  is  the  postulate  of  the 
knowledge  of  God.  In  this  human  life  and  these 
human  relations,  in  the  knowledge  of  a  person  by 
a  person,  there  are  elements  of  strength  and  love, 
elements  of  freedom  which  are  deeper  than  those 
which  exist  in  the  knowledge  of  the  physical 
world.  The  knowledge  of  the  physical  process  is 

1  There  is  no  ground  in  the  physical  process,  for  personality  or 
for  freedom.  The  school  of  Mr.  Tyndall  is  correct  within  the  limi- 
tations of  its  own  thought.  For  in  the  physical  process  the  law  is 
that  of  necessity,  and  a  person  is  only  a  sequent  in  the  evolution  of 
things,  or  a  contingency  in  the  incident  of  things.  The  distinction 
of  a  person  and  a  thing  is  superfluous.  For  personality  is  then  at 
the  most  only  a  product  of  physical  forces,  a  congeries  of  heredi- 
tary habite  and  tendencies. 


28  THE  PERSONALITY  OF  GOD. 

the  result  of  observation  and  comparison ;  it  is 
the  fruit  of  research ;  but  in  human  relations 
there  are  other  elements.  There  is  a  knowledge 
which  is  not  the  result  of  experiment,  and  yet 
may  come  through  experience.  Thus,  for  in- 
stance, one  will  not  experiment  on  a  friend,  and 
sympathy  and  love  are  not  among  the  results  of 
research.  There  may  be  in  the  words,  I  know  him 
in  whom  I  have  believed,  a  deeper  knowledge  than 
that  which  man  obtains  through  the  external  ob- 
servation of  phenomena.1 

As  the  personality  of  man  has  its  foundation  in 
the  personality  of  God,  so  the  realization  of  person- 
ality brings  man  always  nearer  to  God.  Through 
the  deeper  knowledge  of  himself,  through  self- 
knowledge,  man  comes  to  the  knowledge  of  God. 
As  the  higher  realization  of  personality  is  not 
simply  through  the  realization  of  the  me  and  the 
not-me,  so  in  the  family  and  the  nation  there  is 
a  relation  for  man  that  is  beyond  this,  it  is  through 
the  me  and  God.  Thus  the  institution  and  con- 

1  "  For  morality  you  must  have  affections,  and  for  affections  you 
must  have  beings:  and  atheism  does  not  provide  beings.  The  beings 
it  provides  are  not  substances  and  spirits.  Can  you  love  phenom- 
ena? Nature  is  moved  indeed;  and  a  spirit  half  volatile  and  half 
melancholy  breathes  in  light,  classic  poetry  toward  all  vanishing  be- 
ings, even  upon  the  sympathetic  ground  of  a  common  transiency; 
but  love  by  its  very  law  tends  toward  a  substance;  it  wants  the  so- 
lemnity of  eternal  being;  it  wants  a  beyond;  and  no  being  that  ia 
without  this  beyond  can  duly  answer  to  it  as  an  object."  (Mozley, 
University  Sermons,  p.  47.) 


THE  FOUNDATION  OF  PERSONALITY.      29 

tirmance  of  the  life  of  the  family  and  the  nation 
is  in  God. 

The  personality  of  God  is  the  foundation  and 
the  condition  of  the  freedom  of  man.  It  is  the 
source  of  moral  strength.  It  is  the  condition  of 
the  moral  responsibility  of  man,  for  this  implies  a 
relation  that  is  other  than  that  which  exists  to- 
ward phenomena  or  the  law  which  is  inferred 
from  the  sequences  of  phenomena.  The  self-de- 
termination of  God  in  righteousness  and  freedom 
is  the  ground  of  the  self-determination  of  man. 
It  lifts  man  beyond  the  absence  of  nihilism,  with 
its  negations  and  mere  transpositions,  and  beyond 
the  indefinite  phases  of  pantheism,  that  concep- 
tion that  is  spatial  more  than  spiritual,  in  which 
man  loses  himself,  but  comes  not  to  himself.  It 
is  in  contrast  with  the  ignorance  and  servility  that 
breed  superstitions.  The  superstitious  man  is  one 
who  is  not  self-determined,  and  trusts  in  righteous- 
ness, but  is  determined  by  external  and  occult 
potencies,  and  yields  the  control  of  his  own  action 
to  his  conceit  of  these.  The  recognition  of  this 
forbids  all  that  is  abject,  the  degradation  of  reason, 
and  the  prostration  of  will.  It  overthrows  all 
idolatries,  whether  before  the  idols  of  the  school 
or  the  market,  of  the  street  of  the  city,  or  the  as- 
sembly of  the  people. 

It  makes  personality  the  central  principle  of 
the  worlds,  and,  for  us,  the  first  principle  of  hu- 


30  THE  PERSONALITY  OF  GOD. 

man  emotion  and  human  thought.  It  is  the  /  am 
who  was  before  all  worlds ;  it  is  one  who  saith  1 
am  that  I  am.  In  this  finite  existence  man  exists 
m  conditions  of  necessity,  but  necessity  is  taken 
up  and  transmuted  in  the  self-determination  of 
the  free  spirit. 

The  personality  of  man  not  only  has  its  founda- 
tion in  the  personality  of  God,  but  in  that  alone  is 
its  eternal  life.  If  man  had  no  relation  beyond 
the  physical  process,  if  personality  had  no  other 
relations,  it  might  not  avoid  the  conclusion  that 
it  was  to  be  resolved  again  into  the  physical  ele- 
ments,1 to  be  reproduced  in  other  chemical  poten- 

1  It  is  apart  from  this,  that  life  becomes  ephemeral  and  phenome- 
nal. From  a  recent  school,  Mr.  Tyndall  has  a  representation  of  the 
personality  of  man,  as  determined  within  the  limitations  of  the  finite. 
It  is  the  apprehension  of  the  life  of  man  simply  as  ephemeral  and 
phenomenal.  Its  movement  is  regarded  as  automatic  and  void  of 
real  freedom.  The  only  hope  for  man  is  that  in  the  mingling  of  the 
physical  elements  he  may  impart  some  tint  of  blue  to  the  cloud, 
while  the  mists  and  exhalations  of  earth  are  mainly  gray.  Shake- 
speare has  a  representation  of  life  as  phenomenal,  where  all  person- 
ality is  gone,  but  it  is  portrayed  as  a  consequence  of  evil  courses,  it 
is  the  issue  of  a  life,  the  steps  of  whose  advancement  have  been 
through  falsehood  and  murder,  it  is  the  issue  of  a  course  of  awful 
crime,  until  at  last  the  energy  of  the  free  spirit  has  failed,  and  the 
consciousness  of  its  divine  relation  has  gone.  In  the  closing  scenes 
of  the  play  of  Macbeth,  the  death  of  Lady  Macbeth  is  announced, 
with  the  comment  on  it. 

Macbeth.     Wherefore  was  that  cry  ? 

Seyton.     The  Queen,  my  lord,  is  dead. 

Macbeth.     She  should  have  died  hereafter; 
There  would  have  been  a  time  for  such  a  word. 
To-morrow,  and  to-morrow,  and  to-morrow, 
Creeps  in  this  petty  pace  from  day  to  day 
To  the  last  syllable  of  recorded  time. 


THE  FOUNDATION  OF  PERSONALITY.  31 

cies  and  forms,  and  could  have  no  existence  apart 
from  them.  This  Socrates,  who  drank  the  hem- 
lock, might  have  no  other  hope  but  that  he  him- 
self in  the  mingling  of  the  elements  might  be 
changed  into  the  root  and  liquor  of  that  tree  of 
hemlock.  In  its  chemical  changes  it  could  only 
anticipate  the  shaping  of  the  curvature  of  the 
bones  of  some  other  animal,  or  the  imparting  of 
some  tint  to  the  sky  of  some  later  day.  This  an- 

And  all  our  yesterdays  have  lighted  fools 
The  way  to  dusty  death.     Out,  out,  brief 
Life  's  but  a  walking  shadow,  apoorpla 
That  struts  and  frets  his  hour  upon  the 
•      And  then  is  heard  no  more :  it  is  a  tale 
Told  by  an  idiot,  full  of  sound  and  fury, 
Signifying  nothing. 

But  this  portrayal  of  life  as  merely  phenomenal,  with  no  ground  for 
personality  and  with  no  realization  of  divine  and  eternal  relations,  is 
given  with  the  contrast  of  another  life.  In  these  closing  scenes,  there 
is  the  announcement  of  another  death. 

Ross.    Your  son,  my  lord,  has  paid  a  soldier's  debt: 
He  only  lived  but  till  he  was  a  man;  .  .  . 

Siward.  Then  he  is  dead  ? 

Ross.    Ay,  and  brought  off  the  field :  your  cause  of  sorrow 
Must  not  be  measured  by  his  worth,  for  then 
It  hath  no  end. 

Siward.  Had  he  his  hurts  before  ? 

Ross.    Ay,  on  the  front. 

Siward.  Why  then,  God's  soldier  be  he  !  .  .  . 

And  so,  his  knell  is  knoll'd. 

Malcom.  He  's  worth  more  sorrow, 

And  that  I  '11  spend  for  him. 

Siward.  He  's  worth  no  more : 

They  say  he  parted  well,  and  paid  his  score : 
And  so,  God  be  with  him  ! 

This  life  is  with  God.  This  life,  that  is  not  that  of  fribble  or  of 
crime,  is  not  ephemeral,  it  has  a  worth  that  hath  no  end. 


32  THE  PERSONALITY  OF  GOD. 

ticipatiori  would  involve  some  knowledge  or  as- 
sumption of  knowledge  of  another  and  continuous 
existence,  which  would  be  in  suspicious  contradic- 
tion to  man's  present  brief  existence.  But  it 
would  be  all  that  man  would  have.  There  would 
be  no  relation  beyond  the  physical  to  justify  the 
thought  of  continuous  being.  The  personality  of 
God  is  the  ground  of  the  continuous  being  of  the 
personality  of  man. 

The  personality  of  man  in  its  relation  with  men 
involves  individuality.  This  individuality  exists 
in  the  relations  of  the  individual  to  the  race,  and 
in  the  development  of  personality  through  an  ex- 
istence subject  to  finite  conditions.  In  the  reali- 
zation of  personality  as  it  advances  in  man  toward 
the  universal,  this  element  of  individuality  tends 
to  recede  and  disappear.  But  the  personality  of 
God,  in  his  own  infinite  being,  is  not  formed  in  the 
differences  of  a  finite  process,  that  the  element  of 
individuality  should  attach  to  it.  The  perfect 
self-determination  of  the  self-moved  one  is  the 
eternal  and  the  infinite. 

The  personality  of  God  must  determine  our  ap- 
prehension of  the  attributes  of  God  and  not  be 
determined  by  them.  God  is  a  person :  the  chief  - 
est  attribute  of  God  is  freedom,  he  is  the  self- 
determined  one,  his  determination  is  the  perfect 
manifestation  of  himself,  this  is  the  significance  of 
the  Will  of  God :  the  holiness  of  God  is  the  cen- 


THE  ATTRIBUTES  OF  GOD.  33 

tral  principle  in  that  Will,  the  principle  in  which 
he  cannot  become  other  than  himself :  the  right- 
eousness of  God  is  the  assertion  of  that  Will  on 
the  earth ;  the  love  of  God  is  the  expression  of  a 
person  toward  those  who  are  persons. 

There  is  a  certain  representation  of  these  attri- 
bute^ in  which  the  ground  assumed  for  them  is  an 
abstract  system,  a  mere  formalism  of  thought. 
They  are  subjected  to  formal  distinctions  as  posi- 
tive and  negative,  or  absolute  and  relative,  or 
natural  and  moral.  These  terms  have  no  substan- 
tial ground.  They  indicate  a  mere  collection  of 
qualities  which  are  detached  and  divided  as  the 
elements  of  some  component  power.  They  bring 
before  us  a  mere  accumulation  of  powers  and 
then  leave  us  to  consider  the  attachment  of  these 
to  the  personality  of  God.1 

The  attributes  of  God  which  are  thus  predicated 
of  him  proceed  from  no  inner  unity  as  in  person- 
ality. They  are  collected  and  held  as  something 
external,  and  then  applied  to  him.  They  are 

:  S.  Augustine  says,  Quidquid  de  Deo  dicilur,  non  qualitas  est  sed 
essentia.  This  is  true,  but  it  is  ignored  in  the  common  representa- 
tions of  the  attributes  of  God,  and  these  are  enumerated  not  merely 
in  their  attribution  to  him,  but  in  their  detachment  as  a  catalogue  of 
qualities. 

"  We  do  not  worship  a  law  however  simple  and  fruitful  it  may  be; 
we  do  not  worsnip  a  force  if  it  is  blind,  however  powerful,  however 
universal  it  may  be;  nor  an  ideal  however  pure,  if  it  is  an  abstrac- 
tion; we  worship  only  a  being  who  is  living  perfection,  perfection 
under  the  highest  forms,  —  thought,  love."  (Caro  quoted  by  Var 
Oosterzee,  Dogmatik,  vol.  i.  p.  247.) 
3 


34  THE  PERSONALITY  OF  GOD. 

often  conceptions  derived  from  another  source 
They  would  in  some  instances  even  involve  defect, 
and  be  regarded  as  alien  when  applied  to  the  per- 
sonality of  man.  They  may  become  in  many 
ways  a  diversion  of  thought  from  God.  They  in- 
dicate notions  about  God  and  are  not  derivative 
from  God.  Their  postulate  to  which  they  are  for- 
mally appended  is  often  the  empty  notion  of 
being,  as  derived  from  the  finite  existences.1 

These  attributes  are   often  described  in  terms 

1  "  When  it  is  said  of  God  what  he  is,  then  the  attributes  or  prop- 
erties are  enumerated.  Thus  God  is  defined  by  predicates,  that  is, 
special  qualities,  characteristics,  etc. 

"  These  predicates  are  not  immediate  properties  which  are  essen- 
tial to  his  nature,  but  through  reflection  they  are  made  subsistent, 
and  thus  the  definite  content  for  them  becomes  as  immovably  fixed 
as  is  the  natural  content  under  which  God  was  represented  in  the 
religion  of  nature.  The  natural  objects  in  that  religion,  as  the  sun, 
moon,  etc.,  exist  and  these  characterizations  of  reflection  are  held  in 
the  same  way. 

"  Because  the  Orientals  have  the  feeling  that  this  is  not  the  true 
way  to  represent  God,  they  say  that  he  is  '  the  many-named, *  and 
that  his  nature  is  not  exhausted  in  this  specification  of  attributes. 

"  The  defect  in  this  method  of  defining  God  through  predicates, 
from  which  this  various  and  unenumerated  series  of  attributes  comes, 
is  this,  —  that  these  predicates  are  only  special  characteristics,  and 
there  are  many  such  whose  ground  is  the  subject  in  itself. 

"  These  predicates  are  to  express  the  relation  of  God  to  the  world. 
As  special  properties  they  are  not  correspondent  to  his  nature,  —  so 
the  other  way  is  adopted,  —  to  regard  them  as  relations  of  God  to 
the  world.  They  do  not  thus  indicate  the  true  relation  of  God  to 
himself,  but  to  another,  —  that  is,  to  the  world.  So  they  are  limited 
and  so  they  come  into  contradiction.  We  are  conscious  that  God  is 
not  thus  represented  in  a  living  way,  when  so  many  properties  ara 
enumerated,  one  after  another. "  (Hegel,  Philosophic  der  Religion. 
vol.  ii.  p.  230.) 


THE  ATTRIBUTES  OF  GOD.  35 

correspondent  to  some  abstract  argument  for  the 
existence  of  God.  Thus  the  argument  constructed 
from  the  physical  order  of  the  world  determines 
the  reference  to  him  primarily  of  force.  This 
conception  assumes  that  which  exists  in  the  phys- 
ical world  in  a  certain  degree  and  through  certain 
correlations,  and  ascribes  it  to  him  in  its  com- 
pleteness. 

The  conception  of  God  which  we  derive  from 
the  physical  process  of  the  world  and  the  attri- 
butes we  attach  to  him  from  his  relation  to  nat- 
ure, will  not  be  very  far  beyond  the  deification 
of  the  powers  of  nature.  It  may  indicate  an  ad- 
vance, but  a  very  slight  advance,  in  our  knowl- 
edge of  God.  It  may  bring  to  us  the  knowledge 
of  an  energy,  a  first  principle  of  force  or  might, 
—  and  this  is  always  an  element  in  personality,  — 
and  this  knowledge  may  come  to  man  in  the  be- 
ginnings of  time,  but  it  is  not  then  that  this  is 
known  as  the  energy  of  the  eternal  love  and  life. 
It  may  lead  the  steps  of  man  through  the  cloud 
and  whirlwind  and  tempest;  but  when  their  tu- 
mult is  stayed  there  may  be  the  recognition  of 
a  diviner  voice  in  the  conscience  and  the  con- 
sciousness of  men. 

The  attributes  of  necessity  are  relatively  lower 
which  are  suggested  through  the  physical  process 
of  the  world.  They  have  not  the  attraction  which 
belongs  to  the  life  of  the  spirit,  in  freedom  and 
personality.  This  omnipresence  indicates  only  a 


36  THE  PERSONALITY  OF  GOD. 

force  wide  as  the  expanse  of  the  unmeasured  air. 
This  omnipotence  in  the  same  relation  indicates 
power  which  excites  dread  as  something  to  be 
averted,  except  in  the  measure  in  which  it  is 
brought  within  the  knowledge  of  man. 

There  is  the  source  of  awe  and  terror  in  phys- 
ical powers,  and  the  physical  life  of  men  in  the 
course  of  necessity  is  frail  and  brief.  But  there 
are  no  powers  adequate  to  those  of  personality, 
no  elements  of  freedom,  no  traces  of  sympathy  or 
love.  Nature,  in  the  stillness  of  the  forest,  with 
indifference  to  man,  weaves  the  web  of  the  leaf 
and  the  flower.  The  storm  will  not  wait  for  his 
journey,  nor  the  night  delay  for  his  toil.1 

There  is  thus  always  attached  to  these  attri- 
biites,  which  are  the  inference  of  the  identifica- 
tion of  God  with  the  physical  process  of  nature, 
a  certain  characteristic,  a  trace  of  indifference  or 
passivity.  There  is  power,  as  there  is  in  nature, 
but  a  repose  that  in  relation  to  man  is  constant 
and  passionless.  But  the  personality  of  God,  the 
self-moved,  the  self-determined  one,  while  it  im- 
plies the  highest  energy,  does  not  allow  apathy. 

i  It  is  true  that  "we  are  by  nature  the  children  of  impulse:" 
but  this  is  not  a  complete  representation.  This  power  of  nature 
working  in  man,  and  this  indifference  of  nature  to  man,  have  their 
expression  in  that  awful  tragedy,  —  the  most  solemn  and  lofty  trag- 
edy of  our  literature,  —  King  Lear.  It  is  this  power  by  nature  work- 
ing in  man  that  becomes  the  subject  of  the  drama.  Thus  the  court- 
ier says  of  the  course  of  King  Lear,  "it  was  the  bias  of  nature; " 
and  thus  Edmund,  with  his  hereditary  fault,  is  led  to  say,  at  the 
close,  "  I  thought  to  do  some  good,  despite  my  nature." 


THE  ATTRIBUTES   OF   GOD.  37 

The  natural  attributes  of  God,  as  derived  from 
the  expression  assumed  for  the  course  of  physical 
nature,  must  only  indicate  a  passionless  repose, 
—  for  instance,  the  type  in  art  of  the  face  of 
Brahma. 

The  attributes  of  God,  when  wrested  from  per- 
sonality, nor  centered  in  its  unity,  are  constructed 
after  the  notion  of  some  abstract  system  of  ethics. 
This  scheme  is  set  forth  with  certain  definitions, 
and  the  attributes  of  God  are  defined  in  conso- 
nance with  it.  Thus  an  abstract  and  empty  con- 
ception of  sovereignty  which  has  no  ethical  con- 
tent is  assumed ;  but  this,  in  the  self-determination 
and  freedom  of  the  will,  even  in  a  human  rela- 
tion, would  be  a  defect.  It  is  a  barren  conception, 
and  is  annulled  in  the  realization  of  righteousness 
and  freedom  on  the  earth.1  Thus  in  another  way 
the  attributes  of  justice,  of  relative  and  distribu- 
tive justice,  are  primarily  ascribed  to  God,  while 
truth  and  love  and  mercy,  in  conformance  with 
this  scheme,  are  placed  in  a  secondary  grade,  and 
are  regarded  in  a  special  and  reserved  way.  Thus 
a  scheme  of  divinity  is  held  in  the  place  of  a  per- 
son. 

The  attributes  of  God  are  not  relative,  as  the 

1  "  The  story  of  the  prophets  and  the  kings  of  the  Old  Testament 
is  applicable  to  the  modern  world,  because  it  is  a  continual  witness 
for  a  God  of  righteousness,  not  only  against  idolatry,  but  against  that 
notion  of  a  mere  sovereign  Baal  or  Bel,  which  underlies  all  idola- 
try, all  tyranny,  all  immorality."  (Maurice,  Prophets  and  Kings , 
p.  9.) 


38  THE  PERSONALITY  OF  GOD 

term  might  imply  •  they  are  essential.  They  are 
not  relative,  as  if  they  were  involved  in  certain 
relations,  and  subsisted  only  in  these  relations. 
They  are  not  contingent  to  the  world. 

The  attributes  are  not,  then,  the  expression  of 
certain  notions  in  which  the  being  of  God  is  con- 
strued. They  are  not  the  reflective  phases  of 
human  thought.  They  are  not  elements  which 
conform  to  the  changes  of  human  desire ;  they 
are  not  measured  in  the  varying  conflict  of  human 
emotion.1 

But  in  this  recognition  of  the  attributes  of  God 
the  freedom,  the  righteousness,  the  goodness, 
which  belong  to  God,  while  in  him  they  are  abso- 
lute, are  in  their  nature  the  same  as  those  exist- 
ent in  the  personality  of  man.  If  they  were  not, 
then  the  goodness  which  appears  in  the  life  of 
man  would  be  illusive,  and  we  would  be  left  in  a 
world  of  forms,  —  a  phantasmal  world,  in  which 
the  ethical  is  not  real,  and  is  itself  void  of  sincer- 
ity. Then  one  in  sincerity  must  come  to  hate  it. 

The  perfect  manifestation  of  God  to  man  is  in 
a  person;  it  is  through  personality.  It  is  only  in 
freedom  that  we  know  the  infinite,  and  that  hu- 
manity realizes  its  divine  and  eternal  relations. 
It  is  only  in  the  fulfillment  of  the  life  of  humanity 

1  "  They  are  not  simply  the  product  of  our  intellect  in  reflecting 
on  God,  but  have  existed  in  essential  objectivity  in  God,  and  will 
exist,  though  the  activity  of  the  distinguishing  human  intellect  exist 
not."  (Rothe,  Dogmatik,  vol.  i.  p.  45.) 


THE  ATTRIBUTES  OF  GOD.  39 

in  God  that  there  is  the  perfect  satisfaction  of  the 
spirit. 

In  the  realization  of  personality  in  freedom 
man  rises  above  the  limitations  of  the  finite,  and 
in  this,  and  this  alone,  man  is  brought  into  rela- 
tions with  the  infinite. 

Thus,  as  man,  in  the  realization  of  personality, 
rises  through  and  above  the  finite,  it  is  into  rela- 
tions with  the  personality  of  God.  It  is  in  this 
that  he  enters  into  the  life  that  is  immortal. 
That  which  is  open  to  him  is  the  life  of  God. 

We  can  rightly  apprehend  God,  not  when  we 
consider  his  attributes  in  relation  to  the  finite  ; 
and  thus  to  consider  his  omnipresence,  his  omnip- 
otence, his  omniscience,  involves  trivial  confusions 
and  superficial  perplexities,  because  the  ground 
is  itself  the  finite,  and  subject  to  transient  condi- 
tions. We  can  only  rightly  apprehend  him  in  the 
life  of  the  spirit ;  we  can  only  truly  contemplate 
him  sub  specie  eternitatis  ;  we  can  only  really  know 
his  attributes  of  being  in  his  own  infinity  and  his 
Dwn  eternity. 


CHAPTER  III. 

THE   PRECEDENT   RELATIONS    OF   RELIGION  AND  PHI- 
LOSOPHY  TO    THE   REVELATION   OF    GOD. 

RELIGION  has  been  defined  as  the  disposition 
and  conduct  of  man,  impelled  by  motives  of  hope 
and  fear  toward  a  power  conceived  as  above  man  ; 
or  as  the  active  and  passive  relations  of  the  finite 
consciousness  toward  an  unknown ;  or  as  the  rec- 
ognition of  the  relation  of  man  to  the  invisible.1 

1  There  are  certain  definitions  of  religion  to  be  noticed.  These 
definitions  are  often  the  representation  of  abstractions.  They  are 
inconsistent  with  the  facts  in  the  history  of  religion  and  the  facts 
which  the  writer  brings  in  with  them.  They  often  identify  the  re- 
ligious with  the  ethical,  which  they  are  necessarily  led  to  do  by 
their  assumption  that  the  Christ  was  the  founder  of  a  religion. 

Their  defect  is  thus  in  this  assumption,  —  that  the  Christ  was  the 
founder  of  a  religion.  Then  they  proceed  to  contrive  a  definition 
that,  will  correspond  with  their  notion  or  system  of  this  religion,  and 
also  be  in  some  way  consistent  with  the  facts  in  the  history  of  re- 
ligion. 

Van  Oosterzee  says,  "  Religion  is  the  life  of  man  in  communion 
with  God."  In  the  preceding  sentence  he  has  said:  "We  discern 
in  the  most  savage  fetish  worshiper,  an  inward  compulsion  to  rise 
not  merely  above  themselves  and  this  visible  world,  but  to  the  Di- 
vine." But  the  worshiper  of  the  fetish  is  not  then,  as  the  definition 
impl'es,  in  communion  with  God.  So  again  he  says:  "  Religion  is  as 
old  and  widespread  as  mankind  upon  the  earth."  (Dogmalik,  vol.  i. 
p.  76.)  But  this  again  subverts  the  definition  it  is  to  expound. 

"  Religion  is  an  acknowledgment  of  our  duties  toward  the  law  of 
God." 


EELIGION.  41 

The  inquiry  as  to  the  development  of  the  re- 
ligious consciousness,  and  the  induction  from  the 

"  Religion  is  the  recognition  of  all  our  duties  as  if  they  were  divine 
commandments."  (Kant,  Religion  innerJialb  der  Grenzen  der  blossen 
Vernunft,  iv.  1.)  This  identifies  religion  with  ethics.  But  the  actual 
condition  of  religion  is  often  void  of  every  principle  of  ethics,  and 
an  advance  in  an  ethical  life  is  in  conflict  with  it.  The  Christian 
development  has  to  contend  with  it,  as  in  the  religion  of  the  Aztecs 
and  the  Hindus. 

"  Morality  and  religion  are  absolutely  one;  both  are  a  grasping  of 
the  supersensuous.  What  claims  to  be  morality  without  religion 
may  indeed  lead  to  an  outwardly  decorous  mode  of  life."  (Fichte, 
Werke,  vol.  v.  p.  210.) 

"  Religion  is  the  living  power  of  morality,  a  power  which  has  be- 
come conscious  of  its  origin,  and  which  manifests  itself  ceaselessly 
in  moral  achievement." 

"  Religion  is  conscious  morality,  a  morality  which,  in  virtue  of 
that  consciousness,  is  mindful  of  its  origin  from  God."  (J.  H. 
Fichte,  Ethik,  vol.  i.  p.  23.) 

"The  first  meaning  of  religion  is  consciousness,  the  highest  unity 
between  what  we  know  and  what  we  do,  which  makes  it  impossible 
that  what  we  do  should  contradict  what  we  know;  as  the  tendency 
of  the  spirit  to  be  one  with  its  centre  —  God,  is  morality."  (Schel- 
ling,  Werke,  vol.  i.  p.  55.) 

These  definitions  are  admirable ;  they  represent  a  lofty  concep- 
tion, but  they  are  not  an  inference  from  the  facts  in  the  history  of 
religion,  nor  can  they  consist  with  those  facts,  nor  are  they  ad- 
mitted for  one  instant  by  the  most  recent  expositors  of  religion. 

But  these  representations,  assuming  that  the  Christ  is  the  founder 
of  a  religion,  and  that  it  is  the  highest  or  exclusive  type  of  religion, 
are  compelled  to  adopt  a  definition  that  identifies  it  with  an  ethical 
life,  —  the  ethic  of  the  spirit. 

'*  Religion  is  an  active  and  passive  relation  of  the  finite  conscious- 
ness to  the  creator,  preserver,  and  ruler  of  the  world."  (Nitzch, 
quoted  by  Hagenbach,  History  of  Dogma,  vol.  ii.  p.  462).  This  defi- 
nition h.is  a  higher  justification  in  history. 

If  a  definition  is  to  be  devised  in  indifference  to  the  facts  in  the 
religious  development  of  the  race,  simply  as  an  abstract  proposition 
to  consist  with  certain  abstract  theories  or  notions,  then  the  theories 


42  RELIGION  AND  PHILOSOPHY. 

facts  in  the  history  of  the  religious  life  and  con- 
dition of  the  race,  have  a  higher  value  than  any 
formal  definition.  The  systems  which  have  for 
their  postulates  definitions,  and  proceed  with  in- 
difference to  the  facts,  only  minding  the  defini- 
tions, are  of  little  service  except  as  an  intellectual 
exercise.  They  are  merely  the  building  of  ab- 
stractions. 

Religion  is  conterminous  with  the  historical  life 
of  man.  It  has  a  history.  This  may  be  traced 
in  monuments,  customs,  ceremonies,  laws,  arts, 
literatures,  —  the  records  of  the  race. 

It  is  modified  by  the  soil,  the  climate,  and  the 
incident  of  physical  condition.  These  influences 
may  sometimes  be  traced  as  its  characteristic. 
They  not  only  shape  its  expression,  for  this  al- 
ways partakes  of  the  external,  and  in  all  historical 
forms  of  life  must  be  modified  by  external  condi- 
tions, but  its  very  character  is  often  moulded  by 
physical  circumstances,  as  conditions  of  soil  and 
climate,  so  that  it  seems  a  product  of  them. 

In  the  religious  life  of  a  race  there  have  been 
often  the  widest  contrasts.  Eeligion  has  some- 
may  have  some  intellectual  attraction,  but  it  matters  little  what  the 
definition  is. 

The  defect  in  the  last  definition  is  that  it  excludes  pantheistic 
religions,  —  and  a  large  part  of  the  religions  of  the  world  are  of 
this  character,  —  religions  which  overpass  the  finite,  only  to  attain 
to  the  indefinite,  not  the  infinite. 

It  is  also  a  defect  in  this  definition  that  it  gives  an  imperfect 
particular,  and  it  should  add,  for  instance,  the  maker,  preserver,  and 
destroyer,  —  since  perhaps  no  religion  prevails  more  widely. 


THE  DEFECT  OF  EELIGION.  43 

times  appeared  as  a  thing  of  good,  and  again  of 
evil.  It  reflects  the  highest,  and  again  the  lowest 
impulses  in  the  nature  of  man,  and  obtains  from 
them  its  object.  It  has  given  the  motive  to  some 
of  the  noblest,  and  again  to  some  of  the  darkest 
pages  of  history.  It  is  more  often  the  expression 
of  emotion  than  of  the  mere  understanding,  with 
which  in  the  conduct  of  life,  though  sometimes  in 
nobler  and  better  ways,  it  is  frequently  at  vari- 
ance. It  is  sometimes  allied  with  the  most  de- 
grading superstitions,  as  in  the  worship  of  some 
fetish,  and  its  services  are  confused  with  the  lust 
and  violence  of  men.  It  is  sometimes  the  worship 
of  animal  forms  or  physical  forces,  as  a  river,  the 
sun,  the  moon.  This  has  frequent  illustration, 
for  instance,  in  the  rites  of  the  tribes  of  Africa, 
or  of  the  Indians  of  the  Pacific  coasts,  or  in  not 
a  low  period  of  civilization,  in  the  Bacchic  rites  of 
the  Greeks. 

Religion  has  been  the  ally  of  rapine,  the  defense 
of  crime,  the  cry  of  war.  It  has  brought  to  its  aid 
the  fiercest  persecutions.  It  has  swept  many  ages 
and  lands  with  its  desolation,  until  it  has  come  to 
verify  the  line  of  the  Roman  poet,  — 

"Tantum  religio  potuit  suadere  malorum." 

It  is  often  the  weakness  of  man,  who  is  over- 
come with  dread  before  the  forces  of  nature.  It 
is  often  the  in  vesture  of  some  external  object  with 
arbitrary  qualities  of  will  and  cruel  and  relent- 


44  RELIGION  AND  PHILOSOPHY. 

less  qualities  of  character,  an  object  of  which  men 
are  afraid,  and  they  seek  to  purchase  its  favor  or 
avert  its  wrath.  Thus,  the  religion  of  a  people 
may  become  not  simply  an  index  of  its  condition, 
of  its  cruelty  and  violence,  but  the  services  of  re- 
ligion itself  may  become  cruel  with  unrestrained 
emotion  and  dark  with  the  gloom  of  a  disturbed 
imagination. 

It  is,  again,  allied  with  larger  and  nobler  forms 
of  life.  It  has  ideals  which  find  but  an  imperfect 
expression  in  nature,  and  it  embodies  its  thought 
in  the  loftier  types  of  art.  It  sometimes  becomes 
in  so  high  a  degree  ethical  in  its  portrayal  of  hu- 
man life,  that  it  is  wrought  in  literature  in  its 
most  perfect  forms,  so  that  it  furnishes  the  illus- 
tration of  the  ethical  conflict  of  man.  This  is  the 
characteristic  of  the  great  dramas  and  epics  —  the 
"  Prometheus  "  and  "  Agamemnon  "  of  ^Eschylus, 
the  "Odyssey"  of  Homer,  the  "./Eneid"  of  Vergil. 

It  is  often  the  expression  of  a  larger  ethical  con- 
ception in  the  historical  development  of  a  people. 
This  has  its  illustration  in  the  religion  of  the 
Romans  in  the  early  periods  of  their  history. 
When  in  the  foundation  of  their  institutions  there 
was  the  recognition  of  the  unity  and  order  of  the 
family  and  the  state,  and  the  assertion  of  the  au- 
thority and  majesty  of  law,  —  to  these  religion 
brought  its  consecration,  and  it  invested  them 
with  that  solemnity  which  always  gave  dignity  to 
the  spirit  of  Rome. 


THE  EFFECT  OF  KELIGION.  45 

In  different  countries  and  ages,  religion  is  so 
involved  in  the  conditions  of  human  life,  that  no 
one  taking  from  philosophy  the  canon  of  truth 
can  draw  the  lines,  and  describe  this  as  a  true  re- 
ligion and  that  as  a  false  religion.  In  each  there 
are  certain  elements  of  truth,  however  imperfectly 
apprehended  or  rudely  represented,  and  in  each 
there  are  certain  principles  which  indicate  neces- 
sities of  human  nature,  however  imperfectly  sup- 
plied.1 

And  when  religion  is  judged  by  an  aesthetic 
canon,  it  cannot  be  apprehended  as  altogether 
beautiful.  It  may  often  embody  its  conceptions 
in  some  monstrous  or  fantastic  forms,  some  gro- 
tesque image  with  cruel  faces  and  many  hands, 
to  strike  terror  in  the  minds  of  men.  It  finds  the 
symbols  of  its  worship  in  that  which  is  lowest. 
It  identifies  man  most  closely  with  animal  forms 
of  life.  It  draws  its  attributes  from  the  physical 
process,  the  types  of  its  productive  or  destructive 
energies,  attributes  of  cruelty  or  caprice,  of  irony 
or  indifference  for  the  condition  of  man.  These 
images  are  often  invested  with  some  mythical  or 

1  Sclileiermacher,  who  in  this  is  widely  followed  by  recent  writers, 
says:  "Religion  is  constituted  in  feeling  —  the  absolute  feeling  of 
dependence  on  God."  (Werke,  vol.  iii.  p.  70.)  But  it  is  not  simply 
constituted  in  feeling,  and  while  a  feeling  of  dependence  is  in  a 
certain  way  a  right  feeling  and  condition,  it  is  very  far  from  the 
whole  or  the  highest  condition,  though  it  is  taken  up  as  an  element 
in  the  highest.  It  is  at  most  the  attitude  of  a  servant,  and  a  deeper 
feeling,  as  well  as  a  larger  human  relation,  is  evoked  in  the  words, 
/  call  you  not  servants  hut  sons,  I  call  you  not  disciples  but  friends. 


46  RELIGION  AND  PHILOSOPHY. 

traditional  significance  which  is  a  subject  of  in- 
terior knowledge.  They  may  thus  furnish  to 
those  who  hold  them  in  their  intellectual  reserve, 
suggestions  of  a  certain  beauty  and  truth.  They 
come  to  be  celebrated  in  temples  of  great  splen- 
dor of  architecture.  This  has  often  appeared  with 
the  advance  of  a  people  in  its  art  and  culture 
of  life.1 

But,  again,  religion  takes  on  forms  at  variance 
with  that  which  is  true  and  beautiful.  It  appears 
in  the  abject  degradation  of  one  who  worships  the 
stone  on  which  his  foot  has  tripped,  or  the  snake 
whose  fang  he  dreads.  It  is  seen  in  the  tread 

1  The  derivation  of  the  word  religion,  whether  that  given  by 
Cicero,  or  by  Lactantius,  or,  still  better,  with  the  remote  suggestion 
of  S.  Augustine,  is  of  slight  significance.  And  the  distinction  which 
Lactantius  draws  between  religio  and  sapientia,  or  that  of  S.  Au- 
gustine between  religio  and  pietas  has  not,  although  of  interest,  the 
deepest  significance. 

"  Religion  is  a  disease,  though  a  noble  disease."  This  re- 
markable saying  of  Heraclitus,  in  the  sixth  century  B.  c.,  has  been 
placed  among  the  spuria,  but,  as  Muller  says,  it  has  the  full,  mas- 
sive, noble  ring  of  Heraclitus.  It  is  too  great  to  be  of  a  doubtful 
origin,  while  so  remote  in  its  source.  "Heraclitus  blames  those 
who  follow  singers  and  whose  teacher  is  the  crowd;  who  pray  to 
idols  as  if  they  were  to  gossip  with  the  walls  of  houses,  not  know- 
ing what  gods  and  heroes  really  are.  But  Heraclitus  nowhere  de- 
nies the  existence  of  God,  or  of  the  one  Divine.  Only  when  he 
saw  people  believing  in  what  the  singers  told  them  about  Zeus 
and  Hera,  about  Hermes  and  Aphrodite,  he  seems  to  have  mar- 
veled; and  the  only  explanation  ivhich  he  could  find  of  so  strange 
a  phenomenon  was  that  it  arose  from  an  affection  of  the  mind,  which 
he  physician  might  try  to  heal  whenever  it  showed  itself,  but 
yhich  he  could  never  hope  to  stamp  out  altogether."  (Muller,  Ori> 
/in  of  Religions,  p.  5.) 


THE  EFFECT  OF  EELIGIO 

with  measured  motion  of  the  dervish^' 
squalor,  the  lacerated  form  and  rigid 
the  ascetic  of  the  Hindus.  It  is  in  its  metEods — ' 
often  wild  and  turbulent ;  it  is  subversive  of  hu- 
man energy ;  it  is  destructive  of  institutions  of 
order  and  law ;  it  is  regardless  of  truth  and  sobri- 
ety ;  it  is  alien  to  human  freedom ;  it  guards  its 
domain  as  its  own  possession  against  the  advance 
of  thought ;  it  is  in  alliance  with  ignorance  against 
the  beneficent  influences  of  science ;  it  is  in  con- 
flict with  elements  of  progress,  and  confronts  them 
with  its  own  inquisition ;  it  thwarts  natural  affec- 
tion, and  leads  the  mother  to  abandon  her  offspring 
before  some  image  of  its  devotion.  Still,  in  nearly 
every  town  it  leaves  the  record,  it  may  be,  of 
some  poor  child  whose  imagination  has  been  tor- 
tured, or  of  some  poor  woman  who  has  been  taxed 
by  its  devices,  and  is  left  deranged  and  confused 
in  mind  and  life  by  the  modern  revivalist.1 

1  "  Religion  builds  by  turns,  and  fires  the  world,  — in  its  pureuess 
the  ornament  and  strength  of  society,  in  its  perversion  the  scandal 
and  scourge  of  nations.  It  supplied  the  first  rudiments  of  society;  it 
forecasts  the  social  destination  of  man; — leader  in  all  progress;  van- 
guard of  all  stability;  source  of  revolutions  the  most  prevailing; 
champion  of  the  boldest  adventures;  pioneer  more  eager  than  com- 
merce; explorer  more  patient  than  science.  Religion  is  acknowl- 
edged the  mistress  of  arts.  She  reared  the  temples  that  make  Egypt 
venerable,  and  the  marbles  that  made  Greece  renowned.  While 
gratefully  acknowledging  the  multifold  service  of  the  great  benefac- 
tress, we  cannot  forget  the  mischief  and  the  woes  that  have  often 
accompanied  these  gifts  and  goods.  We  cannot  forget  that  religion 
has  been  a  worker  of  evil.  No  agent  that  has  wrought  in  earthly 
scenes  has  been  more  prolific  of  ruin  and  wrong.  The  wildest  aber- 


48  RELIGION  AND  PHILOSOPHY. 

In  its  more  prevalent  and  in  its  recent  forms,  it 
recognizes  in  the  object  of  its  fear  and  devotion 
alike  the  preserver  and  the  destroyer,  whether  it 
be  the  Vishnu  and  Siva  of  the  Hindu,  or  the 
Apollo  of  a  later  culture,  who  is  "  healer  and 
slayer  of  men."  It  is,  in  some  ways,  averse  to  a 
high  ideal ;  the  picture  which  is  rude  in  outline 
and  dim  in  color  is  preferred  to  that  which  has 
greater  excellence.  The  Apollo,  with  its  beauti- 
ful disdain  and  its  lines  of  light  and  strength,  is 
remanded  to  a  museum ;  while  the  dark  image  of 
a  Jupiter,  formed  in  some  later  and  lower  school  of 
art  better  serves  its  uses,  and  is  made  to  stand  as 
the  image  of  a  High  Pontiff,  and  its  foot  is  worn 
with  the  kisses  of  the  faithful. 

In  the  comparative  history  of  religions,  the  de- 
velopment of  the  religious  spirit  may  be  traced 
more  perfectly,  perhaps,  in  India.  From  India  have 
come  religions  which  have  been  sustained  by  a 
larger  number,  and  have  survived  greater  crises, 
and  have  prevailed  through  more  extensive  territo- 
ries. No  other  people  has  been  so  deeply  religious. 
When  the  vast  multitude,  the  long  centuries,  the 
extended  territories  are  considered,  no  other  his- 
tory is  so  impressive  and  so  pathetic.  In  no  other 
people  have  there  been  forms,  traditions,  days, 

rations  of  human  nature,  crimes  the  most  portentous,  the  most  dev- 
astating  wars,   persecutions,  hatred,   wrath,   and  bloodshed,   more 
than  have  flowed  from  all  sources  beside,   have  been  its  fruits.' 
(Hedge,  Ways  of  the  Spirit  p.  36.) 


COMPARATIVE  RELIGIONS.  49 

discipline  of  life,  so  carefully  observed  or  so  com- 
pletely interpenetrated  with  their  religion.  No- 
where else  have  there  been  built  so  many  shrines, 
so  spacious  temples;  nowhere  else  have  there 
been  penances  so  long,  pilgrimages  so  frequent, 
fasts  and  trials  so  severe  and  unrelenting.  Its 
service  is  so  costly,  its  gifts  so  many,  its  devotions 
so  constant,  its  asceticism  so  patient.1 

Eeligion,  in  its  higher  forms,  everywhere  may 
express  the  sorrow  and  pain  of  the  human  spirit — 
in  the  limitations  of  the  finite  ;  in  the  darkness  of 
its  ignorance,  so  shadowed  by  the  uncertainty  of 
its  brief  years;  in  the  struggle  of  its  own  mor- 
tality; in  the  depth  of  its  degradation,  of  which 
there  may  come  an  increasing  conviction  ;  in  the 

1  "  Comparative  religion  shows  that  Christianity  is  one  among 
many  forms."  "  It  can  only  be  understood  when  taken  as  one  step 
in  the  religious  history  of  mankind."  u  Idolatry  is  one  form  of  re- 
ligion." (Parker.  See  Weiss,  Life  of  Parker,  vol.  ii.  p.  56.)  In  a 
work  indicative  of  common  thought,  the  writer  says:  "Notwith- 
standing their  many  differences  of  opinion,  all  Christians  agreed  in 
believing  that,  of  all  historical  forms  of  religion,  Christianity  was 
most  worthy  of  God,  and  best  adapted  to  the  religious  wants,  etc." 
(Hagenbach,  History,  vol.  ii.  p.  463.)  In  consistence  with  this, 
that,  which  describes  the  Christian  revelation  as  a  religion,  would 
make  all  Christian  men  agree  that  it  was  relative,  and  might  be  at 
some  date  displaced  by  some  form  of  religion  yet  more  worthy  and  of 
better  adaptation.  The  confusion  arises  from  assuming  that  it  is  a 
form  of  religion  among  the  religions  of  the  world. 

On  the  relation  of  the  religions  of  the  world  see  Maurice,  The  Re- 
ligions of  the  World;  Hegel,  Philosophic  der  Religion.  The  latter  is 
mainly  a  study  in  the  comparative  history  of  religions.  The  writ- 
ings of  Mr.  Couway  and  Mr.  Frothingham  are  also  of  interest  on 
this  subject. 

4 


50  RELIGION  AND  PHILOSOPHY. 

conflict  with  evil  forces  which  it  yet  knows  are 
alien  to  itself :  and  through  all  these  it  may  express 
its  unselfish  aims,  its  lofty  aspirations,  its  uncon- 
querable hopes.  It  may  be  stirred  with  that  which 
is  better,  and  with  the  images  of  that  which  is  en- 
during, and  is  not  subject  to  decay,  nor  transient 
in  the  transience  of  the  world. 

In  its  higher  forms  the  religious  mind  becomes 
the  evidence  of  the  greatness  of  man,  which  has 
no  finite  measures.  It  becomes  pervaded  with 
the  awe  and  humility,  the  reverence  and  adora- 
tion, which  are  the  expression  still  of  the  exalta- 
tion of  man.  It  becomes  filled  with  images  drawn 
from  the  deep  life  of  the  world.  Keligion  is 
then  the  ally  of  poetry  and  art  in  their  nobler 
forms.  It  brings  before  the  mind  images  of  holy 
beauty,  with  no  stain  of  decay.  It  transfigures 
the  sorrow  of  earth.  It  is  indifferent  to  the 
finite,  and  is  itself  the  morning  and  evening  of 
the  spirit.  It  breathes  the  air  of  the  happy  isles ; 
it  sails  into  the  sunset  beyond  the  far  Cathay.  It 
is  led  by  a  mystic  devotion  ;  it  is  lost  in  the  rapt- 
ure of  its  joy.  It  bows  at  the  shrines  which  it 
has  built  with  the  heart's  adoration. 

It  rears  temples  which  are  the  rest  of  the  sor- 
row and  the  loneliness  of  earth ;  where  weakness 
may  pray  and  penitence  may  weep ;  where  an- 
guish may  seek  to  quench  its  tears ;  where  grief 
may  strive  to  forget  its  pain,  and  hope  to  reil- 
lumine  its  gloom.  In  its  weariness  of  the  restless 


THE  POWER  OF  RELIGION  51 

play  of  human  passion,  it  seeks  the  obliteration  of 
the  finite,  and  turns  to  some  abode  of  calm  and 
passionless  repose.  It  recognizes  the  pathos  of 
the  closing  day,  the  changing  seasons,  the  autumn 
with  its  falling  leaves,  the  swift  advance  of  age, 
the  loneliness  of  the  grave. 

The  forces  which  may  modify  and  restrain  the 
course  of  the  religious  mind  are  traced  through 
the  whole  circumstance  of  life.  They  are,  for  in- 
stance, the  obligations  of  domestic  and  civil  rela- 
tions, the  subjection  to  necessity  in  the  requisi- 
tion of  the  labor  of  the  day,  and  the  economy  of 
life  that  encourages  a  sober  realism.  Man  has  to 
look  to  other  forces,  to  the  life  of  nature  in  its 
more  healthful  influences,  to  society,  to  literature, 
to  poetry,  to  art,  for  restraints  which  may  control 
the  ignorance,  the  emotional  excess,  and  the  im- 
aginative gloom  of  the  religious  mind.1 

Philosophy,  also,  has  only  a  scant  representation 
in  formal  definitions.  To  assume  the  statement  of 
the  boundaries  of  a  country  as  the  actual  descrip- 
tion of  it  is  better  than  the  limitations  of  a  formal 
definition. 

Philosophy,  in  its  larger  outline,  has  been  de- 
fined as  the  course  of  thought  which  has  its  spring 

1  Hegel  says,  with  consummate  beauty  and  depth  of  expression, 
"  In  morality,  the  harmony  of  religion  with  actuality,  with  the  world 
as  it  is,  is  brought  to  existence  and  perfection."  (Hegel,  Philoso- 
phische  Abhandlungen,  p.  400.) 


52  RELIGION  AND  PHILOSOPHY. 

in  man  with  the  love  of  knowledge ;  or  the  reflec- 
tion of  thought  on  the  process  of  being ;  or  the 
attainment  toward  truth  by  the  way  of  reason. 
The  larger  apprehension  of  philosophy  than  any 
definition,  may  be  derived  from  its  history ;  but  it 
is  not  to  be  forgotten  that,  while  there  is  a  his- 
tory of  philosophy,  there  may  be  in  a  deeper  sense 
a  philosophy  of  history.  Philosophy  apprehends 
an  empiric  process  in  history,  but  passes  beyond  it 
to  that  which  is  metempirical. 

Religion  and  philosophy,  although  there  has 
been  a  difference  in  their  comparative  process, 
and  although  they  have  often  been  in  conflict, 
have  an  immediate  relation.  They  have  for  their 
object  the  same  goal.  In  each  the  end  is  the 
absolute,  the  attainment  and  realization  of  the 
truth;  in  each  the  end  is  God,  the  goal  of  the 
aspiration  and  endeavor  of  the  spirit.  Each  in  its 
advance  conforms  with  an  ethical  principle,  —  in 
humility.  The  process  of  the  one  is  in  thought, 
of  the  other  in  worship  ;  the  one  moves  through 
reflection,  the  other  through  emotion;  but  each, 
in  its  development,  involves  the  other,  as  it  has 
for  its  aim  the  truth. 

Hegel,  in  one  of  his  letters,  says,  "  Philosophy 
seeks   to   apprehend   by   means   of    thought   the 
same  truth  which  the  religious  mind  has  by  faith." 
He  repeats  this:    "The  object  in  philosophy  is 
upon  the  whole,  the  same  as  in  religion.     In  both 


PHILOSOPHY.  53 

the  object  is  truth  in  that  supreme  sense  in  which 
God,  and  God  only,  is  truth."  Keligion  and  phi- 
losophy in  their  end  are  one. 

But  while  religion  and  philosophy  thus  often 
move  in  parallel  lines  and  toward  the  same  end, 
in  certain  respects,  it  is  necessary  to  place  philoso- 
phy above  religion.  This  is  involved  in  its  very 
method.  There  is  an  element  of  thought  which 
formulates  religion,  and  opens  a  critical  inquiry  as 
to  its  contents.  It  proceeds  through  a  dialectic  of 
reason.  There  is  thus  a  philosophy  of  religion.2 

Philosophy  has  often  given  a  profounder  ex- 
pression to  the  ethical  conflict  of  man  than  it  has 
found  in  religion,  while,  in  their  higher  forms,  they 
are  so  closely  blended.  Philosophy  has  advanced 
through  the  most  profound  experience  of  the  re- 
lation of  man  to  the  truth,  that  is,  the  reality  of 
things.  It  has  not  been  a  formal  process,  a  barren 
speculation,  as  the  blank  of  light,  and  void  of  all 

1  Hegel,  VermiscJite  Schriflen,  vol.  ii.  p.  520. 

It  may  be  said  that  man  is  by  nature  a  religious  animal,  in  the 
same  way  that  it  may  be  said  that  he  is  philosophical ;  or  that  he 
has  a  philosophical  or  religious  nature.  The  nature  of  the  religious, 
the  philosophic,  the  scientific  mind  is  an  interesting  subject.  These 
are  all  in  their  relative  service  determined  by  a  strictly  ethical  meas- 
ure. 

2  "It  has  been  said  that  religion  is  at  the  cradle  of  every  nation, 
and  philosophy  at  its  grave."     (Morley's  Rousseau,  vol.  ii.  p.  259.) 
This  has  a  certain  truth,  and  religion  appears  more  often  as  a  con- 
structive force  in  society,  while  philosophy  is  of  later  culture  and 
reflective. 


54  KELIGION  AND  PHILOSOPHY. 

content,  but  it  has  wrought  as  truly  as  religion 
with  things  of  life.  There  has  been  through  it 
the  expression  of  that  which  is  deepest  in  the  life 
of  man. 

The  progress  of  philosophy  also  has  often  been 
indicative  of  a  higher  historical  development  in  a 
people.  It  has  given  a  firmer  maintenance  to  the 
authority  of  law,  to  the  unity  and  order  of  states. 
It  has  furnished  no  less  impressive  sanctions  to 
the  domestic  and  civil  and  political  relations  of 
men,  in  the  family  and  the  commonwealth  and 
the  nation.  Its  work  toward  the  same  end  with 
religion,  has  been  pursued  with  a  no  less  enduring 
patience  and  a  constant  devotion.  It  has  been 
animated  by  an  enthusiasm  that  could  be  sus- 
tained only  by  the  noblest  ends.  It  has  been  fol- 
lowed with  a  disregard  of  merely  selfish  interests 
and  an  indifference  to  worldly  aims.  Its  course 
has  been  characterized  by  a  humility  and  rever- 
ence as  real  as  that  which  has  prevailed  in  re- 
ligion. There  has  sometimes  been  a  collision  be- 
tween them,  and  this  has  assumed  a  tragic  form. 
Socrates  was  condemned  to  die  as  an  enemy  to 
the  religion  of  the  state.  The  accusation  against 
him  was  that  he  was  an  enemy  to  the  common  re- 
ligion of  the  times  in  which  he  lived.  The  world 
will  continue  to  read  the  story  of  the  untimely 
death  of  the  martyr  of  philosophy,  wrought  by 
Plato  into  the  very  argument  of  immortality,  and 
will  hold  it  among  its  imperishable  possessions. 


PHILOSOPHY.  55 

Philosophy  has  often  been  connected  with  a 
higher  ethic,  and  furnished  the  aid  toward  a 
higher  ethical  life,  than  religion.  If  its  influence 
in  this  respect  has  not  in  any  one  period  prevailed 
so  widely,  it  has  been  more  enduring  and  survived 
greater  crises.  The  Ethics  and  the  Political  Ethics 
of  Aristotle  and  Plato  have  had  a  continuous  in- 
fluence upon  the  actual  life  of  the  race.  They 
have  been  translated  into  languages  then  un- 
spoken, and  have  shaped  the  thoughts  of  a  thou- 
sand tribes  with  their  advance  toward  a  historic 
life  in  lands  which  were  then  uninhabited.  The 
cultus  and  system  of  the  religions  that  were  con- 
temporary with  them  have  utterly  perished ; 
there  comes  to  them  no  revival.  But  these  works 
still  have  power  in  the  lives  of  men.  They  have, 
it  is  true,  this  advantage  in  the  close  relation  of 
philosophy  with  literature,  that  the  greatest  mas- 
ters in  philosophy  have  also  been  the  greatest 
masters  in  literature.1 

1  If  it  was  ever  given  to  any  one  man  to  express  the  prophetic 
hopes  and  longings  of  the  human  soul,  to  give  voice  to 

—  "the  prophetic  soul  of  the  wide  world, 
Dreaming  on  things  to  come," 

it  was  given  to  Plato.  There  has  been  in  no  religion  so  full  an 
expression  of  the  hopes  and  desires  of  men  which  prefigure  the  rev- 
elation of  God.  The  common  thought  is  given  by  Van  Oosterzee  : 
"It  is  certain  that  Plato  has  more  distinctly  than  any  one  else  ex- 
pressed the  want  which  has  been  supplied  by  the  revelation  ot  the 
light  of  the  world."  (Dogmatik,  vol.  i.  p.  113.)  The  work  of  Aris- 
totle also  has  brought  the  most  profound  justification  to  the  Chris- 
tian theology.  This  was  recognized  in  the  greater  ages  of  the  the- 
ology of  the  church. 


56  RELIGION  AND  PHILOSOPHY. 

Keligion  and  philosophy  both  have  their  fulfill- 
ment in  the  revelation  of  God  in  the  Christ.  The 
long  conflict  and  the  travail  through  suffering  and 
sacrifice  of  religion,  and  the  toil  through  doubt 
and  denial,  the  sincerity  of  conviction,  the  wrestle 
of  thought  for  the  truth,  of  philosophy ;  —  the 
effort  of  religion  and  philosophy,  have  their  ful- 
fillment in  the  revelation  of  God. 

They  have  been  formed  in  the  slow  and  arduous 
ascent  of  man.  They  appear  through  the  dissolu- 
tion and  resolution  in  the  reflective  movement  of 
thought  and  emotion,  of  the  relations  of  man  with 
the  finite  and  the  infinite.  They  bear  the  im- 
press of  many  tribes  and  many  lands,  through  the 
ages  of  the  world.  It  may  be  given  to  faith,  it 
may  be  the  ascertainment  of  reflection,  that  no 
step  through  this  evolution  of  society  has  been  in- 
consequent, and  no  effort  vain. 

Religion  and  philosophy  have  both  exerted  a 
determinate  influence  on  the  development  of  the 
Christian  faith  and  doctrine.  The  hope  and  as- 
piration of  religion,  the  desire  of  the  nations,  has 
found  its  end  in  the  Christian  revelation.  But 
this  influence  has  been  more  potent  through  phi- 
losophy. Thus,  in  the  speculation  of  Plato  and  of 
Aristotle,  the  Christian  doctrine  has  found  its  jus- 
tification, and  their  influence  has  determined  the 
course  and  development  of  great  schools  of  Chris- 
tian thought. 


THE  EFFECT  OF  PHILOSOPHY.  57 

The  Kev  elation  of  and  in  the  Christ  is  not  a 
religion,  and  it  is  not  a  philosophy. 

It  cannot  be  brought  within  the  scope  or  prov- 
ince of  any  definition  of  religion  that  has  a  jus- 
tification in  history.  It  is  not  the  product  of  any 
distinctive  religious  progress ;  and,  further,  it  has 
not  its  origin  in  any  system  of  speculation,  nor  in 
the  reflective  order  of  thought.  It  is  not  a  phi- 
losophy, but  its  relation  to  philosophy  is  as  clear 
and  distinct  as  to  religion. 

It  is  not  within  the  process  of  the  history  of 
religions.  It  is  not  to  be  brought  as  one  stage 
into  the  development,  or  as  one  subject  in  the 
comparative  study  of  religions.  It  is  not  re- 
lated to  them  as  one  individual  form  to  another, 
nor  as  the  universal  to  the  individual ;  for  when 
they  are  embraced  as  a  whole,  it  is  other  and  more 
than  they.  It  can  no  more  take  the  place  to 
which  it  is  invited  among  the  various  religions  of 
the  world  than  the  figure  of  the  Christ  can  take 
its  place  in  the  Pantheon  of  a  Julian. 

If  it  be  assumed  that  it  is  strictly  a  religion,  it 
is  not  clear  in  its  relation  to  philosophy.  For  phi- 
losophy will  still  maintain  its  claim  to  hold  it  in 
subjection  to  its  canons,  to  determine  its  position 
in  relation  to  the  continuous  progress  of  specula- 
tive thought,  and  will  still  seek  for  a  real  and  sub- 
stantial truth. 

The  Christ  does  not  come  into  the  world  as  the 


58  RELIGION  AND  PHILOSOPHY. 

founder  of  a  religion,  and  this  revelation  is  not 
set  forth  as  an  institute  or  a  system  or  a  cultus  of 
religion. 

The  Old  Testament  is  not  primarily  the  record 
of  a  religion,  or  of  a  system  or  science  of  religion. 
It  is  not  the  revelation  of  a  religion,1  but  it  is  the 
revelation  of  God  to  the  world ;  his  revelation  to 
the  family  which  he  has  formed,  and  to  the  nation 
which  he  has  founded,  and  thence  to  the  world. 

The  ritual  which  it  contains  is  subordinate  in 
this  historical,  this  domestic  and  political  devel- 
opment. There  maybe  traces,  in  the  forms  and 
services,  which  the  scholar  may  discern,  of  the  in- 
fluence of  the  religions  of  Egypt  and  Babylon,  and 
the  countries  of  the  Tigris  and  Euphrates  valleys, 
but  it  is  primarily  a  revelation  which  is  other  than 
these.  It  is  throughout  in  conflict  with  these  re- 
ligions, through  its  revelation  of  God,  as  One  and 
invisible,  who  will  put  away  all  the  idolatries  of 
men,  and  will  establish  his  righteousness  on  the 
earth. 

It  is  a  record  of  the  unity  and  order  of  the 
family  and  the  nation,  as  these  endure,  in  the  or- 
ganic life  of  humanity. 

1  "  In  other  books  you  Lave  the  records  of  a  religion.  You  are 
told  how  a  people  introduced  this  worship  and  that  ceremony;  how 
their  soothsayers  told  them  of  services  that  they  had  neglected ;  how 
their  priests  enforced  new  propitiations.  Here  you  have  nothing  of 
the  kind.  All  the  religion  which  the  priests  or  the  people  introduced 

—  the  worship  on  hills  and  in  groves,  the  calves,  the  altars  to  Baal 

—  is  noticed  to  be  denounced;  a  righteous  king  proves  his  righteous- 
ness by  sweeping  it  away."     (Maurice,  Sermons,  vol.  iii.  p.  507.) 


THEIR  RELATION  TO  REVELATION.  59 

It  averts  the  attention  from  a  further  world, 
without  affirmation  and  without  denial  in  regard 
to  it,  and  is  intent  upon  the  eternal  and  infinite 
presence  dwelling  in  the  here  and  now.  Thus  it 
is  an  even  question  with  a  scholar  whether  it 
recognizes  a  world  on  and  beyond  and  the  immor- 
tality of  the  soul,  in  the  common  use  of  this  term. 
Thus  it  differs  from  the  subjects  which  form  the 
staple  of  the  religious  books  of  the  world. 

The  Commandments,  which  are  given  at  an 
early  age,  and  are  continuous  and  formative  with 
the  people,  have  no  distinctive  religious  quality; 
they  are  formed  in  and  become  themselves  the 
maintenance  of  institutions  of  domestic  and  civil 
and  political  order. 

It  is  throughout  the  revelation  of  one  God,  who 
is  invisible,  of  whom  there  can  be  no  graven  image 
made  by  the  hands  of  men,  whose  name  is  the 
Almighty,  the  I  Am,  the  Eternal,  who  is  with  the 
family  and  with  the  nation  in  the  attainment  of 
their  life  in  the  life  of  humanity.  It  was  in  this 
and  in  the  acknowledgment  of  the  Commandments 
as  the  ground  of  freedom,  and  in  the  consequent 
transition  from  slavery  to  freedom,  and  in  the  act- 
ualization of  righteousness,  that  there  were  the 
sources  of  conflict  with  the  religions  which  the 
people  sought  constantly  to  introduce.  This  eth- 
ical course  is  brought  out  with  the  strongest  con- 
trasts. It  is  the  burden  of  the  prophets  borne 
through  all  the  ages  of  their  history.  When  the 


60  KELIGION  AND  PHILOSOPHY. 

king  says  he  has  reserved  the  best  of  the  sheep 
and  oxen  to  sacrifice  unto  the  Lord,  the  prophet 
answers,  to  obey  is  better  than  sacrifice,  and  to 
hearken  than  the  fat  of  rams.  The  words  which 
the  prophets  repeat  as  one  long  refrain  through 
historic  periods  are,  the  new  moons  and  sabbaths  ; 
your  new  moons  and  your  appointed  feasts  my 
soul  hateth  :  they  are  a  trouble  unto  me;  I  am 
weary  to  bear  them  ;  wash  you,  make  you  clean  ; 
cease  to  do  evil,  learn  to  do  well.  The  charge  which 
is  brought  against  the  people  is  their  taking  the 
forms  and  formulas  of  a  service  instead  of  God. 
They  said  no  longer,  where  is  Jehovah  f  but  the  tem- 
ple of  the  Lord,  the  temple  of  the  Lord.  To  repeat 
the  expression  which  Kant  uses,  their  fault  was  in 
the  substitution  of  the  services  of  religion  for  the 
service  of  God.1 

In  the  course  of  the  development  of  the  his- 
tory of  the  world,  in  the  fullness  of  time,  the 
Christ  does  not  come  to  man  as  the  Founder  of  a 
religion.  The  institution  of  a  religion  is  not  the 
subject  of  the  records  of  the  New  Testament.  In 
recent  times  an  eminent  man,  and  of  eminent  in- 
fluence upon  his  age,  has  announced  himself  as  the 
Founder  of  the  religion  of  humanity. 


1  "  The   charge  which    God  by  his  prophets  brings  against  his 
people  in  the  last  days  is  the  taking  his  ordinances  instead  of  him- 
self.    See  Isaiah  and  all  through  Jeremiah.     They  said  not,  where 
is  Jehovah?  but  the  temple  of  the  Lord,  the  temple  of  the  Lord.* 
(Erskine,  Memoirs,  p.  157.) 


THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN.  61 

The  writings  of  the  New  Testament,  as  we  pass 
again  to  their  content,  have  not  a  religion,  nor  the 
institution  nor  the  revelation  of  a  religion,  for 
their  subject.  It  is  the  revelation  of  the  Christ  in 
man,  and  the  infinite  and  eternal  life  of  man.  In 
these  writings  the  very  word  religion  does  not 
appear.  There  is  no  word  which  could  identify 
their  subject  distinctively  with  a  religion  or  a 
philosophy.  Thus  there  is  in  the  writings  of  S. 
John  no  reference  to  the  subject.  The  Gospel  and 
the  Epistles  of  S.  John  are  concerned  with  a  rev- 
elation, and  the  manifestation  of  an  eternal  life.1 

1  "  Thus  we  learn  what  work  it  is  our  missionaries  have  to  do 
when  they  go  into  heathen  lands.  It  may  be,  before  they  leave  their 
own  country,  they  think  that  their  business  is  to  rouse  the  natives  of 
those  lands  to  what  they  would  call  a  sense  of  religion,  an  interest 
about  their  souls,  a  conviction  of  the  shortness  of  life,  the  anticipa- 
tion of  an  approaching  judgment  and  eternity.  They  can  scarcely 
stir  a  step  in  any  of  these  countries  without  discovering  traces  of  a 
sense  of  religion,  of  an  interest  about  the  soul,  of  an  anticipation  of 
death,  of  a  dread  of  what  is  to  follow  death,  to  whicla  they  were 
quite  unused  on  their  own  soil.  If  they  have  no  other  vocation  than 
this,  if  they  have  not  learnt  that  this  is  not  even  a  part  of  the  mes- 
sage which  they  are  to  carry  with  them,  they  may  soon  regret  that 
they  ever  crossed  the  seas.  They  will  find  that  the  task  which  they 
came  to  perform  has  been  done  and  is  doing  more  effectually  by  the 
Yogis  and  Fakirs,  whose  influence  they  wish  to  destroy.  Unless 
they  come  with  a  gospel  concerning  God ;  unless  that  gospel  enables 
them  to  meet  the  anxieties  about  religion,  about  the  soul,  about 
death,  about  the  future,  which  lie  like  a  dead  weight  upon  the  fac- 
ulties and  energies  of  tribes  which  have  proved  themselves  capable, 
and  are  still  capable,  of  noble  thoughts  and  great  deeds;  unless  they 
can  turn  the  thoughts  of  immortality  and  judgment  into  moral  and 
quickening  thoughts,  thev  are  not  going  out  upon  the  errand  on 
which  S.  Paul  and  the  missionaries  of  nis  day  went;  they  are  not 


62  EELIGION  AND  PHILOSOPHY 

In  the  writings  of  S.  Paul  the  rare  use  of  a  cor- 
responding word  is  very  significant.  It  finds  no 
place  except  in  infrequent  and  indirect  reference. 
S.  Paul  lived  among  sects  and  societies,  into  which 
the  nation  was  divided,  that  were  of  an  exclusive 
and  intensive  religious  character.  He  describes 
his  early  life,  —  his  life  before  his  conversion,  and 
before  the  revelation  of  the  Christ  and  its  light 
was  given  to  him :  after  the  most  straitest  sect  of 
our  religion,  I  lived  a  Pharisee.  The  Greek  word 
which  he  uses  is  not  of  very  noble  lineage  nor 
character,  nor  of  the  larger  significance  of  the 
English  word  —  religion.  S.  Paul,  in  a  phrase  of 
critical  significance,  says  to  the  Athenians,  as  he 
stands  in  sight  of  their  altars  and  temples,  where 
their  services  and  processions  are  so  frequent  and 
imposing,  /  perceive  that  in  all  things  ye  are  too 
religious.  The  characteristic  words  which  S.  Paul 
uses  are  of  a  revelation  in  the  Christ  and  the 
righteousness  of  the  Spirit.  S.  James  has  a  phrase 
in  which  the  word  is  assumed  in  the  common 
translation,  which  may  be  noticed  for  its  ethical 
significance,  "pure  and  undefiled  religion  is  to 
visit  the  widow  and  the  fatherless."  This  would 
obviously  be  deficient  by  its  limitation  of  religion 
to  the  ministry  of  charity.  The  wrord  should  be 
translated  ritual.  It  is  not  of  grave  importance 

carrying  the  news  of  a  redemption,  they  are  not  testifying  of  that 
glory  which  was  manifested  in  the  Person  of  Jesus  Christ  to  the 
world."  (Maurice,  Sermons,  vol.  i.  p.  126.) 


THE  GOSPEL  OF   ST.  PAUL.  63 

to  the  subject,  but  it  has  thus  an  illustrative  and 
beautiful  significance.  The  true  ritual  is  not  of 
form  and  processional,  but  in  actual  charity. 

In  the  writings  of  S.  Paul  there  is  only  an  in- 
direct reference  to  the  development  of  religion 
or  the  speculation  of  philosophy.  It  must  be  ad- 
mitted that  nothing  could  be  more  alien  to  his 
thought  than  a  discourse  on  the  advantages  or  the 
excellences  of  religion.  He  is  concerned  neither 
with  the  experiences  of  religion  nor  the  courses  of 
philosophy.  But  not  only  the  very  word  religion 
has  in  these  writings  no  correspondent,  but  their 
content  is  other  than  that.  It  is  a  revelation ;  it  is 
of  righteousness  ;  it  is  of  righteousness  by  faith  ;  it 
is  of  the  ethic  formed  in  the  knowledge  of  God ;  it 
is  of  a  judgment  in  the  presence  of  the  infinite  and 
eternal,  in  which  alone  is  the  right  judgment,  by 
individuals  and  by  nations,  of  this  finite  world  ;  it 
is  a  judgment  of  the  world,  but  by  One  who  has 
lived  on  this  earth,  and  is  risen  from  the  dead. 
This  in  one  form  is  verified  in  the  deepest  human 
experience,  as  it  has  its  anticipation  in  one  of  the 
loftiest  works  of  philosophy,  the  dialogue  of  Plato 
on  the  immortality  of  the  soul.  The  thought 
which  is  always  deeper  than  his  formal  argument 
's  that  in  the  presence  of  the  death  of  one  we 
.iove  we  know  the  infinite  in  the  life  of  humanity. 
This  verifies  itself  to  man  that  love  is  stronger 
than  death. 

The  outline   alone  remains    of    the    large   dis- 


64  KELIGION  AND  PHILOSOPHY. 

course  of  S.  Paul  at  Athens;  but  that  discourse 
was  of  the  revelation  of  God,  of  righteousness,  of 
the  judgment  of  the  world  by  one  risen  from  the 
dead.  It  was  not  the  announcement  nor  the  com- 
mendation of  a  religion  to  the  Athenians. 

In  the  writings  of  the  New  Testament,  the 
Christ  uses  phrases  that  were  common  in  his  day, 
—  words  derived  both  from  philosophy  and  re- 
ligion. This  appears  in  terms  pertaining  to  phi- 
losophy, —  as  the  word,  truth,  the  eternal,  free- 
dom ;  and  in  terms  pertaining  to  religion,  —  as 
prayer,  faith,  heaven.  But  these  words  are  used 
very  sparingly,  while  they  are  penetrated  with  a 
new  meaning,  and  another  and  higher  import  is 
given  to  them.  His  words  are  mainly  drawn  from 
the  daily  life  of  man,  as  the  Father,  the  Son,  the 
Son  of  man,  and  again,  from  the  contemporary 
forms  of  political  life,  as  the  King,  the  Kingdom 
of  God. 

The  law  of  all  forms,  which  subjects  them  to 
the  uses  of  humanity,  and  pervades  them  with 
a  principle  which  is  wrought  into  the  actuali- 
zation of  the  freedom  of  humanity,  is  in  the 
words,  the  sabbath  was  made  for  man,  and  not 
man  for  the  sabbath.  This  is  universal  in  its  ap- 
plication, and  from  one  of  the  earliest  and  most 
sacred  of  all  forms  the  princ'ple  is  derived  by 
which  all  are  regarded. 

In  words  of  yet  more  significant  import,  whose 
offense  to  the  religious  societies  of  his  age  could 


RELIGION  AND  KEVELATION.  65 

not  be  exceeded,  and  which  have  the  same  im- 
port for  the  religious  societies  of  every  age,  the 
Christ  as  he  walks  across  the  fields  on  the  sab- 
bath day  says,  in  this  place  is  one  greater  than 
the  temple. 

These  words  were  used  by  S.  Paul  afterwards 
in  the  deeper  imagery  in  which  human  life  is  por- 
trayed in  the  life  of  the  Spirit,  as  he  writes, 
know  ye  not  that  your  body  is  the  temple  of  the 
Holy  Ghost  ?  There  cannot  be  a  further  re- 
move of  the  religious  order  than  in  the  represen- 
tation of  man  as  the  temple  of  the  Spirit. 

The  Christ  was  a  divine  witness  for  the  ser- 
vice of  humanity.  It  is  a  divine  precedent  that 
is  not  superseded  by  any  form ;  therefore  did 
the  Jews  persecute  Jesus,  and  sought  to  slay  him, 
because  he  had  done  these  things  on  the  sabbath 
day.  But  Jesus  answered  them,  My  Father  work- 
eth  hitherto,  and  I  work. 

It  has  been  said  that  every  religion  consists 
primarily  of  a  cultus  and  a  doctrine.  This  has 
an  entire  historical  justification.  But  this  cultus 
and  doctrine,  in  the  words  of  the  Christ,  are 
transmuted  into  an  ethical  and  a  universal  prin- 
ciple. Thus  the  law  of  a  cultus,  or  worship,  is 
given  in  the  r-ubric :  not  here  nor  at  Jerusalem ; 
they  that  worship  the  Father  must  worship  him  in 
spirit  and  in  truth.  The  same  principle  was  to  be 
repeated  again,  in  the  diversion  of  thought  from 
the  earthly  Jerusalem,  the  city  girt  by  the  Syrian 


66  KELIGION  AND  PHILOSOPHY. 

mountains,  and  in  the  realization  of  that  which  is 
universal ;  the  Jerusalem  which  is  above  is  free, 
which  is  the  mother  of  us  all. 

As  it  is  with  a  cultus,  so  it  is  with  a  doctrine  of 
religion ;  it  is  at  once  transmuted  into  an  ethical 
process  and  realization ;  he  that  doeth  the  will 
shall  know  the  doctrine.  This  is  given  conversely 
in  words  of  the  most  profound  ethical  import  •  ye 
shall  know  the  truth,  and  the  truth  shall  make  you 
free. 

The  Christ  had  at  no  time  an  identity,  even  the 
most  remote,  with  any  of  the  great  sects  or  so- 
cieties which  represented  and  embraced  the  dis- 
tinctive religious  life  of  his  age.  He  had  no  con- 
nection with  the  Scribe  or  the  Sadducee  or  the 
Pharisee.1  The  strongest  contrast  was  seen  in 
the  character  of  the  Pharisee.  The  Pharisee  was 
not  a  man  of  mere  pretense ;  he  was  the  type  of 
a  strictly  religious  man,  but  one  who  cared  more 
for  religion  than  for  humanity. 

The  Christ,  in  the  beginning  of  his  work,  as  he 
went  forth  into  the  world,  went  to  a  marriage  fes- 
tival. He  did  not  withdraw  himself  from  the 
actual  life  of  men.  The  reproach  brought  against 
him  by  the  religious  sects  and  societies  of  his  age 

1  "  The  Pharisaical  aspirant  assumed  evil  as  the  ground  from 
which  he  started.  Evil  was  the  condition  of  his  race.  Every  step 
that  raised  him  above  evil  raised  him  above  mankind.  The  nearer 
he  approached  to  the  Being  he  worshiped,  the  further  he  was  from 
those  among  whom  that  Being  had  placed  him."  (Maurice,  Ser 
mons,  vol.  ii.  p.  333.) 


THE  CHRIST  AND  THE  PUBLICANS.       67 

was,  he  eats  with  publicans  and  sinners  ;  behold 
the  friend  of  publicans  and  sinners.1 

The  apostles  whom  he  called  and  sent  forth  into 
the  world  were  among  common  men,  as  one  who 
sat  at  the  customs  and  one  who  was  a  fisherman. 

There  is  in  the  words  of  the  Christ  the  direc- 
tory for  no  penance,  nor  shrine,  nor  pilgrimage. 
There  is  the  pattern  for  no  altar  nor  temple.  The 
rites  which  appear  in  various  ways  in  every  his- 
torical religion  are  not  recognized. 

The  Christ  institutes  no  cultus  of  worship  and 
prescribes  no  system  of  dogma.  There  is  no  sug- 
gestion of  form  of  worship  or  formula  of  doctrine. 
The  blessing  which  he  gives  is  of  those  who  act 
and  suffer  in  the  life  of  humanity.  It  is  of  the 
gentle,  of  those  who  mourn,  of  those  who  suffer 
persecution  for  righteousness,  of  those  who  hun- 
ger after  righteousness. 

The  conflict  and  transition  from  the  religions  of 
men  to  the  life  of  the  Spirit,  the  realization  of 
truth  and  freedom  in  humanity,  was  to  be  borne 
on  through  the  coming  ages.  The  Christ  fore- 
tells to  his  disciples  this  conflict,  not  as  a  casualty 

1  "  Jesus  was  emphatically  a  man  of  the  world.  The  daily  walks 
of  men  were  familiar  to  his  feet ;  their  daily  joys  and  sorrows  and 
all  their  wants  familiar  to  his  heart.  When  he  went  to  the  mar- 
riage feast  he  went  as  a  wedding  guest.  When  he  went  among  pub- 
licans and  sinners,  he  sat  at  their  tables  without  reserve,  and  shrank 
from  no  contact  with  the  daughters  of  vice.  Religion  might  flaunt 
her  sanctimonies,  tie  wore  no  phylactery  he  suffered  no  sabbath  to 
check  his  humanity,  and  no  tradition  to  bind  his  freedom."  (Hedge, 
Ways  of  the  Spirit,  p.  108.) 


68  RELIGION  AND  PHILOSOPHY. 

of  their  lives,  but  as  the  sequence  of  a  principle 
that  was  to  be  realized  :  they  shall  put  you  out  of 
the  synagogues ;  yea,  the  time  cometh  that  whoso- 
ever killeth  you  will  think  that  he  doeth  God  service. 
These  things  will  they  do  unto  you,  because  they 
have  not  known  the  Father  nor  me. 

The  characteristic  event  which  marked  the  cri- 
sis, the  close  of  one  age  and  the  opening  of  another 
age,  an  seonian  day,  was  the  destruction  of  the 
temple.  And  it  was  not  simply  the  end  of  one 
age  and  the  beginning  of  another  age ;  it  was  not 
simply  the  close  of  the  dispensation  of  the  law 
and  the  beginning  of  the  dispensation  of  grace  ;  it 
was  the  destruction  of  the  temple.  The  Christ 
had  gone  into  the  temple,  but  it  was  to  affirm  that 
which  would  lead,  in  its  realization,  to  the  over- 
throw of  the  temple.  The  worship  henceforth 
was  to  be  that  in  which  none  had  need  to  journey 
far,  nor  to  go  on  pilgrimages  to  distant  shrines  or 
cities  to  enter  the  doors  of  the  temple.  As  he 
went  out  of  the  temple,  some  spaJce  of  the  temple, 
how  it  was  adorned  with  goodly  stones.  Jesus 
said,  Seest  thou  these  great  buildings,  there  shall 
not  be  left  one  stone  upon  another,  that  shall  not  be 
thrown  down.  The  destruction  of  the  temple  was 
the  sign  of  the  coming  of  the  Son  of  man;  his 
own  person  was  that  temple,  in  which  God  might 
meet  man,  and  man  might  meet  God. 

This  principle  was  to  be  borne  on  to  the  close. 
It  finds  a  constant  illustration.  In  the  closing 


KEVELATION  AND   KELIGION.  69 

events  of  this  age,  the  accusation  of  the  Jews 
against  the  Christ  was  on  the  ground  that  he  was 
an  enemy  of  their  religion.  He  was  charged  with 
blasphemy.  But  in  that  hour  in  which  he  was 
confronted  with  this  charge,  there  was  the  expres- 
sion of  no  vision  which  brought  into  light  the 
symbols  of  the  worship  of  this  earth,  no  refrain 
borne  on  through  recollections  of  anthems  and 
litanies.  There  was  the  utterance  of  those  words 
which  spoke  of  the  eternal,  the  glorified  life  of 
humanity  in  that  fulfilled  vision :  Hereafter  shall 
the  Son  of  man  sit  on  the  right  hand  of  the  power 
of  God.1 

The  difference  between  the  revelation  of  the 
Christ  and  all  religions  is  ultimate.  But  it  con- 
sists with  the  fact  that  this  revelation  is  mani- 
fested to  and  in  humanity.  It  is  one  with  the  life 
of  righteousness,  the  life  of  the  spirit.  Through 
the  revelation  in  the  Christ  the  religions  of  the 
world  become  transmuted,  as  in  Him  has  been 
manifested  that  foundation  of  human  life  which 
they  but  vainly  sought,  and  on  this  earth  could 
riot  find.  They  looked  through  the  decay  of  all 
things  for  that  which  was  beyond  decay  and  was 
indestructible,  but  it  was  not  in  thought,  or  erno- 

1  "  In  religious  books  we  find  the  death  of  Jesus  chiefly,  almost  ex- 
clusively pressed,  whereas  in  the  Scriptures  we  find  that  the  Apos- 
tles were  called  to  be  witnesses  of  his  resurrection.  See  Acts  ch.  i 
v.  22;  ii.  32."  (Erskine,  Memoirs,  p.  116.) 


70  RELIGION  AND  PHILOSOPHY. 

tion,  or  desire,  and  in  Him  was  revealed  that  life 
which  does  not  suffer  decay  nor  yield  to  the  cor- 
ruption of  the  grave.  It  was  through  death  to 
the  resurrection,  the  life  that  is  here  and  now  in 
the  life  of  the  spirit,  but  the  life  that  is  infinite, 
the  life  that  is  eternal. 

This  contrast  is  borne  on  to  the  close  ;  —  in  the 
last  vision,  the  types  of  that  historical  process, 
of  which  S.  John  the  Divine  has  written,  are  not 
drawn  from  those  of  which  the  imagination,  when 
filled  with  religious  conceptions  of  an  individual 
character,  can  have  any  intimation.  Its  types  are 
drawn  from  the  most  varied  activities  in  the  com- 
mon life  of  humanity.  They  are  of  a  city,  but 
the  glory  of  God  doth  lighten  it,  that  there  be  no 
need  of  the  sun  or  of  the  moon ;  and  of  that  city 
it  is  written,  /  saw  no  temple  there.  These  words 
consist  with  no  order  of  strictly  religious  thought, 
and  have  no  parallel  in  the  religions  of  the  world. 

There  are  certain  consequences  involved  in  the 
exposition  of  this  revelation  as  a  distinctive  re- 
ligion that  may  be  noticed. 

Religion  and  certain  religious  sentiments  and 
notions  are  made  the  substitute  for  this  revelation. 
The  phases  of  the  religious  imagination,  the  vague 
aspirations,  and  the  variable  moods  of  the  mind, 
often  its  unrestrained  desires  when  carried  away 
by  impulse  and  disturbed  emotion,  are  made  the 
sum  and  fulfillment  of  this  revelation.  That  which 


THE  ECLECTIC   AND  THE  AGNOSTIC.  71 

man  in  his  religious  effort  has  devised  about  God 
is  made  the  substitute  for  that  which  God  has 
made  known  of  himself.1 

There  is  another  consequence  parallel  with  this, 
which  follows  from  the  apprehension  and  repre- 
sentation of  this  revelation  strictly  as  a  religion. 
It  is  brought  with  other  religions  within  the  pur- 
suits of  an  eclectic  school  of  religions.  This  may 
be  joined  with  an  agnostic  school.  It  writes  in- 
scriptions, but  to  an  unknown  God.  It  is  very 
religious  ;  it  regards  all  religions  as  equal  and  the 
same  in  their  origin.  This,  then,  is  apprehended 
strictly  as  one  religion  among  these  various  re- 
ligions. Thus  it  defines  their  relative  value  ;  it 
composes  their  anthologies ;  it  forms  a  miscellany 
of  their  various  precepts  ;  it  has  represented  the 
Christ  as  one  among  the  founders  of  religions,  and 
it  finds  in  the  course  of  the  Christian  life  in  history 
only  the  institution  of  a  system  of  religion.  This 

1  It  has  been  made  a  criticism  of  the  services  of  the  Church  and 
its  offices  of  prayer  that  wide  ranges  of  religious  aspiration  and 
emotion  are  left  out.  They  have  no  expression.  The  characteristic 
phrases  are  those  which  speak  of  the  manifestation  and  advent,  the 
resurrection  and  ascension,  the  redemption  of  the  world,  an  eternal 
life,  and  a  service  which  is  perfect  freedom.  There  is  the  widest 
contrast  between  the  service  of  the  Church  and  that  whose  charac- 
teristic is  the  expression  of  religious  emotion  and  aspiration. 

There  are  religious  sects  or  societies  that  trace  their  correspond- 
ence in  their  origin  and  order  back  to  the  synagogue  of  the  Jews  as 
it  was  in  the  time  of  Christ.  But  the  correspondence  which  the 
Christ  uses  is  of  the  family  and  of  political  societies  and  institutions 
as  the  kingdom  of  heaven. 


72  EELIGION  AND  PHILOSOPHY. 

school  may  have  a  value  in  its  aid  toward  the 
study  of  the  comparative  religions  of  the  world. 
But  it  illustrates  the  fact  that  this  revelation, 
when  it  is  apprehended  simply  as  one  religion 
among  others,  may  become  the  most  inconse- 
quent and  incomplete  of  all.  It  is  devoid  of  life; 
it  is  reduced  to  broken  fragments,  mere  words  of 
counsel  and  exhortation  to  religious  conduct.  The 
school  is  one  of  clever  criticism,  of  intellectual 
subtlety,  of  large  but  vague  aspirations,  of  pale 
negations,  of  weak  but  irregular  pietism.  It  may 
be,  as  S.  Paul  describes  the  agnostics  at  Athens, 
too  religious. 

The  defect  in  this  mode  of  thought  appears  in 
another  form,  in  the  assumption  of  a  controversy 
between  religion  and  righteousness,  —  between  re- 
ligion and  morality.  This  distinction  has  no  ground 
in  the  writings  of  the  Old  and  New  Testament, 
unless  it  be  in  the  contrast  of  the  revelation  of 
God  and  his  righteousness  with  the  religions  which 
prevailed  in  the  world.  It  is  not  that  religion  and 
morality  are  there  represented  as  in  a  formal 
identity ;  these  phrases  are  set  aside.  If  morality 
be  regarded  only  as  a  course  of  external  deco- 
rum, or  as  the  economy  of  the  individual  result- 
ant from  a  prudential  estimate  of  the  promiscuous 
advantages  of  life,  or  as  a  hereditament  in  the 
evolution  of  man  through  a  life  determined  by 
physical  necessity,  then  it  has  no  consistence  with 
this  revelation,  which  presumes  a  will  that  acts  in 


EIGHTEOUSNESS.  73 

freedom,  and  the  manifestation  of  a  living  God 
who  will  establish  righteousness  on  the  earth. 
This  ethical  life,  the  life  of  the  righteousness  of 
the  spirit,  cannot  be  apart  from  God,  as  there  can 
be  no  true  conception  of  conscience  which  does 
not  affirm  the  being  of  God. 

The  terms  of  this  distinction,  however,  of  re- 
ligion and  morality,  not  only  are  alien  to  these 
writings,  but,  among  different  peoples  and  ages, 
religion  is  of  worth  mainly  in  the  degree  in  which, 
to  use  Hegel's  profound  expression,  it  has  been 
brought  into  identity  with  morality.  Thus  even 
the  sacrifice  it  calls  forth  in  life,  in  its  highest  act, 
has  a  value  in  the  measure  in  which  it  is  deter- 
mined by  a  moral  emotion  and  for  a  moral  end. 
There  have  been  far  larger  numbers  who,  from 
generation  to  generation,  in  the  devotion  and  ab- 
negation of  their  sacrifice,  have  thrown  them- 
selves before  the  car  of  Juggernaut ;  but  the  world 
counts  beyond  these  the  three  hundred  who  laid 
down  their  lives  in  the  pass  at  Thermopylae,  in 
obedience  to  the  laws,  and  this  gives  to  that  field 
an  immortal  interest. 

The  defect  in  the  apprehension  of  this  revela- 
tion as  a  religion  is  apparent  in  the  religious  and 
philosophical  systems  of  the  preceding  century. 
It  was  carried  through  the  assumption  of  a  dis- 
tinction between  a  natural  and  revealed  religion. 
That  was  a  time  when  the  message  to  men  was 
the  commendation  of  religion  to  an  enlightened 


74  BELIGION  AND  PHILOSOPHY. 

patronage.  It  was  an  age  when  men  could  build 
monuments  alike  to  faith  and  hope  and  religion. 
It  was  to  be  followed  by  a  school  of  culture,  which 
could  talk  of  "  the  state  and  art  and  religion  ; " 
but  the  revelation  of  God  cannot  be  brought  into 
this  catalogue. 

There  is  a  further  defect  in  this  apprehension, 
which  is  to  be  noticed,  in  the  fact  that  religion  and 
certain  religious  sentiments  and  notions  are  main- 
tained as  the  substitute  for  this  revelation.  The 
forms  of  the  religious  imagination,  the  phases  of 
religious  emotion,  the  conceptions  of  the  religious 
mind,  control  and  determine  this  revelation,  but 
they  are  not  controlled  and  determined  by  it. 
These  conceptions  still  hold  their  place,  and  are 
made  to  mould  the  Christian  revelation  instead 
of  being  moulded  by  it.  The  old  heavens  still  are 
over  us.  Those  words  of  deepest  and  divinest 
import  were  long  since  spoken ;  The  kingdom  of 
heaven  is  within  you  ;  but  not  yet  may  we  receive 
them  in  their  universal  and  human  significance  ; 
if  we  accept  the  words  it  must  be  as  a  type  or 
shadow,  and  allowing  no  reality.  Thus  the  forms 
and  conceptions  of  ancient  religions  determine 
our  thought;  they  still  prevail.  They  rule  us 
from  their  buried  urns.  The  gods  of  those  imag- 
inative forms,  whether  dark  and  cruel,  or  light 
and  beautiful  with  the  changing  forms  of  life, 
have  vanished,  and  the  temples  and  shrines  are 
sought  no  longer  by  men,  but  the  religious  con 


ANCIENT  KELIGIONS.  75 

ceptions  and  images  still  control  us ;  they  do  but 
slowly  fade.  They  shape  themselves  in  the  sys- 
tems of  men.  and  still  determine  this  revelation, 
and  are  but  slowly  transmuted  by  its  spirit.  This 
may  be  traced  in  every  form  and  phase  of  relig- 
ious thought. 

The  divine  and  eternal  sacrifice,  in  the  com- 
ing and  life  and  death  of  the  Christ  on  the  earth, 
is  interpreted  in  the  preconceptions  of  the  relig- 
ions of  men.  The  light  in  which  it  is  portrayed 
is  darkened  with  the  awful  rite,  and  lurid  with  the 
glare  of  the  fires  which  burn  on  the  altars  of 
pagan  sacrifice. 

The  inspiration  of  the  Spirit,  which  is  given  to 
men  in  the  life  of  the  spirit,  and  which,  therefore, 
has  not  and  cannot  have  its  postulate  in  the  mere 
limitations  of  the  finite,  is  held  within  the  style  of 
these  religions.  It  is  regarded  as  the  inspiration 
of  the  letters  and  pages  of  the  sacred  books.  It  is 
no  longer  the  utterance  of  the  living  word,  but  is 
restricted  within  the  conception  of  the  pagan  ora- 
cle. 

Thus,  again,  the  representation  of  the  divine 
judgment  is  that  which  found  expression,  although 
often  in  a  serious  and  profound  form,  in  the 
greater  of  the  pagan  religions  and  philosophies, 
as  in  the  Gorgias  of  Plato.  It  is  represented  not 
as  an  object  to  be  sought,  and  a  manifestation  of 
truth,  and  the  realization  of  righteousness  on  the 
earth,  but  as  a  doom  to  be  averted  and  a  power 


76  RELIGION  AND  PHILOSOPHY. 

to  be  dispelled.  The  judgment,  most  often  as  por- 
trayed in  the  Greek  philosophies  and  in  the  Teu- 
tonic religions,  is  made  the  substitute  for  that 
which  the  Christ  has  given,  which  is  the  realiza- 
tion strictly  of  an  ethical  principle  and  an  ethical 
spirit  in  the  life  of  humanity. 

Thus,  the  representations  of  heaven  and  hell 
take  on  the  imagery  devised  in  the  religions  of 
the  world,  and  divested  of  an  ethical  character, 
they  are  employed  with  a  more  potent  effect. 
These  had  an  intenser  expression  in  the  Teu- 
tonic religions,  with  the  tribes  and  peoples  that 
came  from  the  German  forests,  than  that  which 
had  prevailed  in  the  Roman  or  Greek  religions. 
Rome  was  practical,  and  had  a  profound  sense  of 
law  and  order  and  their  obligations.  Her  religion 
was  built  on  the  validity  of  law  and  social  obliga- 
tions, and  penetrated  with  convictions  of  the  au- 
thority and  sacredness  of  the  family  and  the  state, 
and  of  the  judgments  which  come  upon  a  people 
with  the  violation  of  their  bonds.  But  it  was, 
almost  as  little  as  Judea,  occupied  with  a  nether  or 
an  other  world.  It  was  not  attracted  by  the  images 
in  which  its  joys  were  portrayed,  nor  repelled  by 
its  penalties ;  it  was  not  allured  nor  alarmed  by 
these,  while  in  the  Greek  and  the  Teutonic  re- 
ligions these  took  a  darker  form.  In  the  Greek 
there  was  some  lightness  in  the  pictures  of  the 
elysian  fields,  while  in  the  Teuton  there  was  the 
portrayal  of  a  sombre,  though  sometimes  grotesque 


ANCIENT  EELIGIONS.  77 

imagination.  These  are  only  surpassed  in  the  aw- 
ful conceptions  which  fill  the  religions  of  India. 
These  still  hold  their  place  with  the  peoples  who 
have  inherited  the  Teutonic  and  Indian  traditions. 
They  have  their  reaffirmation ;  they  give  form 
and  color  to  the  revelation  of  the  Christ  and  the 
life  of  the  spirit,  and  it  is  hut  gradually  that  they 
are  moulded  and  transmuted  by  it  in  the  realiza- 
tion of  the  life  of  righteousness,  the  life  of  truth 
and  freedom.  The  representations  of  these  sub- 
jects in  the  higher  periods  of  these  religions  and 
philosophies  may  even  be  nobler  than  some  of 
those  which  still  in  some  ages  prevail.  The  repre- 
sentation of  the  judgment  in  the  Greek  philoso- 
phy, as  in  the  Gorgias  of  Plato,  and  of  heaven  and 
hell  in  the  Teutonic  religion,  serve  as  illustrations 
of  this. 

This  fact  has  also,  in  the  external  phases  of  re- 
ligion and  religious  history,  a  significant  illustra- 
tion, which  may  be  noticed  simply  as  an  illustra- 
tion of  the  subject.  The  forms  and  festivals  of 
ancient  religions  reluctantly  yield  their  ground. 
The  student  of  history  may  trace  the  adoption 
from  certain  ages,  ages  of  ignorance  and  deca- 
dence of  faith,  of  forms  and  usages  from  different 
religions.  These  forms  and  festivals  still  impress 
their  character  upon  events,  and  remain  by  trans- 
position, as  some  saturnalia  passes  into  a  carnival 
at  Koine.  There  are  still  sacred  and  secular  days, 
and  holy  and  profane  things.  There  are  shrines 


78  KELIGION  AND  PHILOSOPHY. 

and  pilgrimages,  and  the  strange  beauty  with 
which  the  religious  imagination  invests  the  char- 
acter of  the  shrine  and  the  pilgrim  moulds  the 
thought,  as  some  unfulfilled  symbol  in  the  life  of 
man. 

There  may  be  traced  in  certain  Christian  centu- 
ries the  adoption,  from  the  east,  apparently  through 
some  remote  association,  of  patterns,  forms,  cere- 
monies, modes  of  dress  and  service  ;  these  are 
correspondent  with  those  of  Buddhism.  There 
was,  it  may  be  in  the  fourth  and  again  in  the 
sixth  centuries,  an  introduction  from  oriental  re- 
ligions, from  India  or  Persia,  of  systems  of  pen- 
ance and  monasticism,  and  even  the  designs  for 
shrines,  and  the  colors  and  embroideries  for  robes 
and  dresses.  This,  in  an  intellectual  form,  has 
also  reappeared  in  some  schools  with  the  study  of 
the  literature  of  Buddhism  and  the  philosophic 
culture  of  pessimism. 

The  graver  issue  of  the  substitution  of  concep- 
tions derived  from  pagan  religions,  —  as  those  of 
sacrifice  and  inspiration  and  judgment  and  the  fur- 
ther worlds,  for  the  revelation  which  God  has  made 
of  himself  in  the  Christ,  —  is  that  at  last  concep- 
tions derived  from  these  religions  come  to  be  at- 
tached to  the  conception  of  very  God.  He  be- 
comes himself  a  Baal,  a  Moloch,  or  a  Siva ;  he  is 
pacified  by  the  suffering  and  death  of  his  chil- 
dren ;  his  presence  is  in  a  temple ;  his  appearing 
is  through  the  doors  of  a  shrine  ;  his  revelation  is 


ANCIENT  RELIGIONS.  79 

the  sacred  books ;  his  coming  again  is  an  event  of 
historical  circumstance  in  the  formal  process  of 
history.  When  these  conceptions  of  pagan  re- 
ligions are  attached  to  him,  his  character  and  rela- 
tion to  humanity  are  brought  into  correspondence 
with  them :  or,  again,  he  is  identified  with  nature, 
—  with  the  nature  of  things,  as  in  the  religions 
of  nature.  Thus,  as  his  investure  is  with  the  traits 
ascribed  to  a  Moloch,  or  with  those  drawn  from 
the  physical  process  of  the  world,  this  conception 
is  substituted  for  the  revelation  of  the  name  of 
the  Father  and  the  Son  and  the  Holy  Spirit. 

But  again,  the  substitute  for  this  revelation  is 
simply  the  expression  of  religious  sentiments.  In- 
stead of  the  revelation  of  God  to  man  we  have 
the  sentiments  and  feelings  of  man  about  God. 
This  is  a  school  of  poetry  and  music  in  its  shorter 
and  weaker  forms  ;  it  furnishes  the  productions  of 
a  religious  sentirnentalism  ;  it  sets  aside  the  divine 
commandments  which  are  the  ground  of  social 
order ;  it  identifies  the  character  of  God  with  the 
physical  process  of  the  world.  This  becomes  in 
another  form  the  worship  of  nature  ;  it  regards 
the  prodigality  of  nature,  and  makes  this  its  prin- 
ciple, as  another  school  has  made  the  severity  of 
nature  its  principle,  and  prodigality  and  severity, 
profusion  and  destruction,  are  alike  found  of  each 
in  nature.  It  does  not  hold  a  principle  of  right- 
eousness ;  it  annuls  the  divine  commandments ;  it 
regards  the  divine  judgment  as  a  remote  event; 


80  EELIGION  AND  PHILOSOPHY. 

it  is  not,  in  its  own  phrase,  congenial  with  a  sub- 
stantial morality. 

There  come  many  ages  and  intervening  crises 
in  the  slow  and  long  advance  of  humanity  before 
the  words  are  realized  and  received  :  Not  here 
nor  at  Jerusalem;  they  that  worship  the  Father 
shall  worship  him  in  spirit  and  in  truth. 

There  is  in  the  revelation  of  the  Christ  the 
goal  of  religion  and  philosophy.  They  become 
one  in  their  realization  in  the  life  of  the  spirit,  — 
one  in  the  realization  in  the  life  of  humanity  of 
truth  and  freedom. 

The  Christ  becomes  to  man  righteousness  and 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE   REVELATION   OF    GOD. 

THIS  revelation  is  the  revelation  of  God ;  it  is 
from  God,  but  primarily  it  is  of  God. 

It  is  the  divine  self-revelation.  In  it  God  re- 
veals himself.  It  is  the  revelation  of  his  own  be- 
ing and  will. 

It  is  not  a  being  which  is  abstract,  and  a  will 
which  is  void  of  self-determination ;  it  is  a  being 
which  is  real,  and  a  will  which  is  real  and  is  real- 
izing itself  in  the  world. 

All  that  God  is  he  imparts,  he  reveals.  He  is 
no  more  a  distant  being,  that  man  cannot  approach 
him;  he  is  not  an  inaccessible  being,  that  man 
cannot  find  him ;  he  is  not  an  unknown  being, 
but  what  he  is  he  has  made  known. 

This  is  not  the  revelation  of  an  abstract  uni- 
versum,  which  then  is  apprehended  only  as  the 
collocation  of  the  transient  forms  of  the  finite 
world ;  it  is  not  an  indeterminate  something  in  us 
not  ourselves ;  it  is  not  an  unknown,  to  which  the 
continuous  and  ultimate  relation  of  man,  or  of  a 
being  like  man,  must  be  one  of  nescience  ;  but 
what  God  is  he  has  made  known  to  man. 

The   revelation  of    God   in  his  personality,  in 


82  THE   KEVELATION   OF   GOD. 

his  spiritual  being  and  spiritual  relations,  is  not  of 
and  in  the  physical  process  of  the  world.  The 
physical  jDrpcess  is  the  other  than  the  spiritual, 
and  in  its  relation  with  God  is  only  known 
through  the  mediation  of  the  spirit,  and  its  char- 
acteristic is  that  it  is  constantly  passing  and  is  to 
pass  away.  It  is  the  transient,  the  finite,  that 
seems  always,  in  its  unrest  and  advance,  to  be 
striving  to  reach  the  infinite.  There  is  in  this 
revelation  the  recognition  of  the  finite  limitations 
of  nature,  and  of  the  conflict  in  nature,  as  it  bears 
in  itself  the  reconciliation  of  the  spirit. 

There  are,  in  the  process  of  the  physical  world, 
the  signs  and  the  correspondences  with  the  reve- 
lation of  God,  but  they  have  the  characteristic  of 
the  finite  in  its  transience.  There  are  signs  as 
of  beauty  in  the  flower  and  of  light  in  the  sun, 
but  it  is  with  unceasingly  passing  forms,  as  with 
the  flower  that  fades  and  the  sun  that  sets. 
There  are  signs  of  deeper  significance,  as  in  the 
relations  of  a  father  and  son  and  brother,  and 
these  are  existent  in  the  physical  process  of  the 
world,  but  are  taken  up  and  transmuted  through 
the  mediation  of  the  spirit,  and  have  an  ethical 
actualization  in  the  moral  order  of  the  world. 
Thence,  in  the  development  which  brings  to  time 
increasingly  its  fullness,  there  is  the  revelation  of 
God  and  his  righteousness  in  the  moral  order  of 
the  world.  But  this  order  in  the  family  and  the 
nation  is  other  and  higher  than  the  physical  pro- 
cess of  the  world. 


THE  LAW  OF  FREEDOM.  83 

This  is  the  revelation  of  one  who  was  before  all 
worlds;  who  says,  before  the  foundations  of  the 
world  were  laid,  —  I  am  ;  but  it  is  not  the  rev- 
elation of  one  who  is  in  identity  with  the  phys- 
ical process  of  the  world.1  It  is  the  revelation  of 
God  in  his  separateness  from  the  world,  before  the 
reconciliation  of  the  world  unto  himself ;  it  is  the 
revelation  of  God  in  his  distinctness  from  hu- 
manity before  the  manifestation  of  his  oneness 
with  humanity.  In  the  physical  process  there  is 
sequence,  but  there  is  not  progress ;  there  is  ne- 
cessity, but  there  is  not  freedom.  In  the  histor- 
ical process  there  is  progress  and  there  is  free- 
dom, however  slow  may  be  the  development,  — 
but  that  is  in  the  life  of  the  spirit.  Thus  ne- 
cessity is  transmuted  into  freedom,  and  sequence 
becomes  progress.  The  process  of  the  physical 

1  "  We  have  a  revelation  in  our  own  nature.  On  this  revelation 
the  church  of  the  future  must  establish  its  claims  to  acceptance." 
(Gould,  Origin  and  Development  of  Religious  Belief,  vol.  ii.  p.  10.) 
This  is  not  strictly  true.  It  is  not  strictly  in  our  nature;  it  is  of 
God,  in  the  Christ,  the  Son  of  God  who  has  become  the  Son  of  man, 
and  in  the  relation  of  the  Christ  with  humanity,  and  through  the 
mediation  of  the  Spirit ;  and  on  this  the  Church  is  built. 

This  is  not  the  revelation  of  one  who  is  in  identity  with  nature, 
but  this  is  the  revelation  of  God,  who  is  one  in  the  final  realization 
of  the  ideal  with  nature,  — not  one  with  the  process  where  all  forms 
are  transient  through  their  subjection  to  conditions  of  time,  but  one 
with  nature  in  the  realization  of  the  perfect  reconciliation. 

For  this  conflict  is  not  the  evidence  of  a  dualism,  though  of  itself 
it  would  be,  and  in  nature  through  the  physical  process  there  is  no 
evidence  of  reconciliation.  But  this  reconciliation  is  revealed,  and 
working  in  and  through  all  things;  it  is  the  revelation  of  God  recon 
c'dwg  the  world  unto  himself. 


84  THE  REVELATION  OF   GOD. 

world  is  that  of  necessity ;  this  does  not  preclude 
the  will ;  the  antithesis  is  not  between  necessity 
and  freedom.  While  the  act  of  sheer  necessity  is 
in  itself  unfree,  there  is  an  element  of  necessity  in 
the  freedom  of  the  will.  This  element  is  taken 
up  and  transmuted,  to  use  again  the  illustration 
drawn  from  society,  as  the  will  of  man  in  the  be- 
ginnings of  its  freedom  and  in  every  advance  to- 
ward freedom  recognizes  its  oneness  with  law  : 
the  state  has  its  advancement  in  the  oneness  of 
law  with  liberty,  and  in  the  institution  and  recog- 
nition of  law  liberty  may  be  attained.  This  phys- 
ical and  historical  process  does  not,  therefore,  in 
the  least  preclude  the  will  of  God,  in  whom  is 
perfect  freedom,  by  whom  all  things  subsist,  and 
from  whom  all  things  proceed,  and  to  whom  all 
things  come,  —  whose  will  in  its  self-determina- 
tion has  its  perfect  realization,  from  manifesting 
itself  in  the  coming  of  the  kingdom  of  the  spirit, 
in  which  the  normal  course  is  disclosed  in  its  end, 
in  the  coming  of  life  out  of  death,  and  in  the  real- 
ization of  the  perfect  freedom  of  man. 

The  struggle  which  goes  on  in  nature  is  car- 
ried up  into  the  spiritual.  Thus  the  ascent  of 
man  and  his  advance  is  through  conflict,  in  the 
realization  of  an  ideal  end  in  freedom ;  and  that 
which  is  animal  in  its  impulse  and  is  reckless  of 
any  relation  beyond  its  own  advancement  is  over- 
come, and  this  struggle  through  its  transmutation 
into  the  conflict  and  endeavor  of  man  toward  the 


EEVELATION  IS  LIGHT.  85 

perfect  self-realization  is  ennobled.  Thus  in  lit- 
erature, as  the  representation  of  human  experi- 
ence, in  the  adventure  of  the  Odyssey  of  Homer 
and  in  the  progress  of  the  Pilgrim  of  Bunyan, 
there  is  something  more  and  other  than  the  mere 
struggle  for  existence. 

This  revelation  is  its  own  witness.1  It  bears  in 
itself  its  evidence,  and  the  elements  from  which 
it  is  to  be  apprehended.  It  is  not  dependent  upon 
that  which  is  other  than  itself  for  its  authenti- 
cation. It  is  light  itself,  and  not  a  refraction  of 
something  apart,  that  from  thence  it  should  be- 
come known.  It  has  no  need  of  certain  criteria 
for  its  verification,  which  are  to  be  adduced  to  en- 
able its  recognition.  Revelation,  as  Rothe  says, 
"  springs  immediately  from  itself." 

Revelation  is  light.  It  does  not  need  that 
which  is  apart  from  itself  to  throw  an  illumina- 
tion upon  it.  It  has  the  self-evidencing  nature 
of  light.  In  the  physical  condition  vision  implies 
only  light  and  an  organ  adapted  to  the  light.  • 

This  revelation  is  for  another.  In  it  is  in- 
volved the  relation  of  being  for  another.  It  has 
its  inception  in  love,  and  is  the  expression  of 

1  "  In  the  Christian  revelation  it  is  revealed  what  God  is ;  he  is  no 
more  on  the  other  side,  —  an  unknown, — for  he  has  made  known 
to  man  what  he  is,  and  not  merely  in  an  external  history,  but  in  the 
consciousness."  (Hegel,  Philosophie  der Religion,  vol.  ii.  p.  191.) 


86  THE  REVELATION  OF  GOD. 

the  love  of  God  and  the  fulfillment  of  the  will  of 
God  toward  man.  It  is  the  revelation  of  God  to 
man.1 

This  revelation  of  God  to  man  may  be  modi- 
fied and  limited  by  that  in  and  through  which  it 
is  given.  The  revelation  which  could  be  con- 
ceived in  the  physical  process  would  be  dim  and 
transient,  it  would  be  ephemeral  in  comparison 
with  the  revelation  in  and  through  the  life  of  the 

1  This  is  the  truth  which  in  one  form  is  implied  in  and  underlies 
the  profound  distinction  of  philosophy,  —  the  distinction  of  being 
with  self,  and  being  for  another,  and  being  for  self.  But  these  ad- 
verbial terms  are  merely  the  technical  phrases  of  philosophy.  By 
being  with  self  is  meant  being  shutting  itself  up  with  itself,  pursuing 
only  its  own  self-aggrandizement,  recognizing  only  a  law  of  selfish- 
ness; being  for  another  is  not  simply  to  subserve  the  uses  and  ends 
of  another,  —  it  goes  forth  toward  another,  its  life  is  in  and  with  an- 
other; and  this  is  involved  in  being  for  self,  which  is  the  perfect 
self-realization.  In  this  and  in  the  subjection  of  the  lower  self,  the 
being  with  self,  and  in  the  manifestation  of  being  for  another,  is  the 
perfect  self-realization.  It  is  the  being  with  self  which  is  the  source 
of  evil,  of  isolation  and  pride,  and  at  last  comes  to  know  its  own 
nakedness  and  poverty.  It  is  this  which  is  the  mere  assertion  of  a 
law  of  selfishness.  This  distinction  is  summed  up  in  thje  words,  He 
that  seeketh  his  life  shall  lose  it,  and  he  that  loseth  his  life  shall  find  it. 
It  has  its  justification  in  the  ethical  development  of  the  family  and 
the  nation,  where  in  being  for  another  there  is  being  for  self,  the 
realization  of  self. 

This  underlies  all  the  contradictions  which  have  been  advanced  in 
the  recent  notions  of  egoism  and  altruism,  and  the  crude  assertions 
of  enlightened  self-interest  as  a  law  of  human  activity. 

Thus,  also,  in  the  higher  development  of  the  family  and  the  nation 
man  is  brought  nearer  to  God,  and  into  a  fuller  knowledge  of  the 
being  and  love  of  God.  It  is  thus,  also,  that,  apart  from  the  family 
and  the  nation,  the  hope  is  very  faint,  for  the  individual,  of  moral 
improvement  and  moral  reformation. 


THE  ABSTRACT   SYSTEM.  87 

spirit.  The  manifestation  within  the  conditions 
and  relations  of  the  finite  must  be  limited  by 
these  conditions  and  relations.  The  manifesta- 
tion in  external  history  must  be  also  subject  to 
the  precedent  forms  of  history.  The  revelation 
to  man  in  the  consciousness,  the  revelation  in  the 
life  of  the  spirit,  is  above  the  limitations  of  the 
finite,  and  has  elements  that  are  not  determined 
in  its  conditions. 

This  revelation  is  of  and  to  a  person.  It  is  con- 
tinuous ;  it  is  of  and  through  the  fullness  of  time. 
The  name  in  the  common  forms  of  thought  is  the 
sign  of  the  reality  :  this  name  is  the  name  of  the 
one  of  might,  the  Almighty,  the  I  am,  the  Eter- 
nal ;  it  is  the  strong  one,  the  holy  one  ;  it  is,  as  it 
is  borne  through  history,  the  name  of  the  Lord  of 
Hosts.  It  is  the  name  of  God  as  one  in  common 
with  men. 

This  revelation  is  not  an  appeal  simply  and  im- 
mediately to  an  intuition,  and  it  does  not  act 
through  that  alone  as  its  organ.  It  is  a  revela- 
tion through  reflection;  through  the  pure  forms 
of  thought ;  through  faith ;  through  experience  ; 
through  the  life  of  the  spirit. 

This  revelation  is  not  of  an  abstract  system,  nor 
of  certain  propositions  which  convey  certain  ab- 
stract truths.  It  is  not  the  presentation  of  certain 


88  THE  KEVELATION  OF  GOD. 

abstract  notions  about  God.  It  is  not  the  revela- 
tion of  a  scheme  of  divinity  that  man  is  to  re- 
ceive in  the  place  of  God.  It  is  the  revelation  of 
God  himself ;  it  is  the  revelation  of  God  himself 
to  man.  It  is  not  the  communication  of  a  state- 
ment. It  is  not  the  exposition  of  that  which  i« 
only  provisional  and  is  relative  to  man.1 

This  revelation  is  not  spectacular.  It  is  not  a 
pageant  unfolded  as  in  the  shifting  changes  of 
some  scenic  movement ;  it  is  not  a  series  of  pict- 
ures. It  is  not  the  unveiling  before  man  of  that 
which  is  always  external  to  him,  although  it  is  a 
revelation  from  God,  in  his  distinctness  from  man, 
to  man,  and  in  the  manifestation  of  his  oneness 
with  man.  It  is  not  a  series  of  events,  as  an  ad- 

1  Hegel  uses  constantly  the  term  religion,  but  he  is  involved  in 
confusion  in  defining  its  relation  to  philosophy;  he  could  not,  while 
assuming  the  identity  of  religion  with  the  revelation  of  the  Christ, 
avoid  subjecting  himself  to  the  charge  of  placing  philosophy  above 
religion.  But  his  whole  conception  of  Christianity  is  merged  in  that 
of  revelation.  The  outline  which  he  presents  has  a  very  high  value, 
and  as  always  in  this  threefold  distinction  one  clause  is  not  to  be  de- 
tached from  another,  but  each  is  interpenetrated  by  the  other.  This 
revelation,  which  is  positive  and  given  to  man,  becomes  in  its  reali- 
zation in  the  life  of  the  spirit,  the  life  of  truth  and  freedom. 
Hegel  says  :  — 
"  The  absolute  religion  is  — 

"  (a.)    The  revealed  religion. 

**  (&.)    The  positive  religion,  as  revealed  to  man,  or  a  reve- 
lation to  man  from  without. 
"  (c.)    The  religion  of  truth  and  freedom.'* 

(Hegel,  Philosophic  der  Religion,  vol.  ii.  p.  60.) 


THROUGH  SONSHIP.  89 

vent  and  judgment,  which  pass  before  man,  as  if 
man  had  no  concern  with  them.  It  is  not  sim- 
ply the  bringing  relatively  nearer  to  him  of  that 
which  was  relatively  remoter  from  him.  It  enters 
into  and  becomes  the  centre  and  the  foundation 
of  the  real  life  of  man ;  or,  more  strictly,  it  is  the 
discovery  of  the  only  centre  and  foundation  of 
the  real  life  of  man.  This  revelation  is  of  the 
divine  relations  of  the  life  with  man.  It  is  given, 
not  as  the  selective  attainment  of  intellectual  pur- 
suits, nor  the  fruit  of  an  exclusive  culture.  I 
thank  thee,  0  Father,  Lord  of  heaven  and  earth, 
because  thou  hast  hid  these  things  from  the  wise 
and  prudent,  and  hast  revealed  them  unto  babes. 
It  is  not  the  reserved  inheritance  of  the  wise  and 
prudent,  to  be  held  as  their  private  interest  and 
for  their  private  ends.  It  is  the  revelation  of 
the  divine  fullness ;  it  has  no  limitations ;  it  is 
from  God,  and,  —  as  of  the  father  in  the  parable, 
—  Son,  thou  art  ever  with  me,  and  all  that  I  have 
is  thine. 

This  revelation  is  through  relations.  It  is  of 
the  Father  and  the  Son  ;  it  is  the  revelation  of 
that  knowledge  which  the  Son  has  of  the  Father ; 
its  centre  is  in  the  relation  of  the  Father  to  the 
Son ;  all  things  are  delivered  unto  me  of  my  Father, 
and  no  man  knoweth  the  Son  but  the  Father, 
neither  knoweth  any  man  the  Father  save  the  Son, 
and  he  to  whomsoever  the  Son  will  reveal  him. 


90  THE  REVELATION  OF  GOD. 

This  revelation  is  of  a  spirit  and  to  a  spirit. 
There  must  be  that  in  man  which  is  to  receive  this 
revelation.  There  can  be  no  revelation  to  stones 
and  trees  and  stars,  nor  of  the  spiritual  to  the 
physical.  God  is  a  person,  and  the  revelation  of 
God  is  of  a  person  to  and  with  a  person.  It  thus 
presumes  a  ground  of  communion.  It  is  a  reve- 
lation to  the  reason  and  the  conscience  and  the 
faith  of  men ;  but  it  is  to  and  through  them  in 
their  unity  and  correlation  in  man  as  a  spiritual 
being,  invested  with  power  to  know  the  things  of 
the  Spirit.  It  is  not  simply  the  complement  of 
reason  •  it  does  not  come  to  take  up  the  lines 
of  thought  where  the  attainment  of  reason  has 
left  them  ;  it  is  the  correspondent,  in  their  en- 
ergy, of  reason  and  conscience  and  faith.  It  is 
not  simply  brought  to  the  critical  tests  of  the 
reason  and  the  conscience  and  the  faith  of  men, 
as  if  it  were  something  external  to  them,  al- 
though it  is  and  is  to  be  verified  of  them,  but 
it  is  their  very  element  so  that  conscience  has 
its  right  in  it,  and  reason  its  ideal,  and  faith  its 
rest,  that  they  abide  in  it  as  their  home.  In  its 
verification  to  the  reason  it  becomes  the  strength 
of  the  will :  ye  shall  know  the  truth,  and  the  truth 
shall  make  you  free. 

It  is  not  a  revelation  to  faith  alone,  and  the 
representation  of  it  in  this  way  rests  on  the  appre- 
hension of  the  mind  itself  after  a  molecular  and 
mechanical  formula  as  a  component  of  certain  dis 


THE  KNOWLEDGE  OF  MYSTERIES.  91 

tinct  and  detached  faculties  and  powers.  It  does 
not  obliterate,  it  does  not  lull  to  sleep,  the  cogni- 
tive faculties,  the  reason  or  the  conscience,  but  it 
elevates  them  in  the  realization  of  truth  and  free- 
dom.1 

It  is  not  the  revelation  of  certain  mysteries 
which  are  always  to  remain  and  be  preserved  as 
mysteries.  The  Christ  says  of  the  kingdom  of 
God,  it  is  a  mystery  which  is  given  to  his  disciples 
to  know ;  S.  Paul  speaks  of  the  gospel  as  a  mys- 
tery which  is  now  made  manifest.  The  presump- 
tion is  of  a  growth  in  knowledge  and  in  life,  with 
the  individual  and  the  race,  and  in  this  which  is 
now  made  manifest  no  limits  to  knowledge  are 

1  "  When  I  ask  what  reason  or  right  I  have  to  believe  that  a  man 
who  lived  in  Palestine  eighteen  hundred  years  ago  was  the  Son  of 
God,  I  must  discern  in  the  history  itself  a  truth  and  light  which 
meet  the  demands  of  my  reason  and  conscience. 

"  It  would  be  desolate  if  man  was  separated  from  God  by  an  im- 
passable barrier;  if  he  belonged  to  an  order  of  beings  that  was  sim- 
ply other  than  God.  The  only  deliverance  for  man  lies  in  the  living 
union  of  God  with  humanity,  and  not  as  an  historical  matter,  but 
an  eternal  spiritual  order. 

"  Christianity,  if  true,  must  explain  the  true  spiritual  and  moral 
consciousness.  Conscience  is  this  fact.  It  is  not  merely  part  and 
parcel  of  myself.  It  is  the  presence  of  the  light,  life,  love  of  God, 
met  by  a  spiritual  capacity  in  us  of  apprehending  it.  It  is  here,  not 
as  a  taskmaster  or  a  spy,  but  as  a  guide,  comforter,  helper.  This 
presence  dwells  in  each  of  us,  connecting  us  with  each  other  and  all 
with  God. 

"  The  Christ  has  passed  through  human  life  and  human  death, 
bearing  all  our  burdens,  connected  with  every  individual  of  the  race, 
not  only  by  a  bond  of  love,  but  a  bond  of  relation,  of  brotherhood, 
—  a  bond  which  can  never  be  broken."  (Erskine,  Memoirs,  p.  327.) 


92  THE  REVELATION  OF  GOD. 

imposed.  It  places  no  barriers  nor  confines  before 
thought.  It  invites  the  approach  to  no  Eleusinia. 
It  is  concealed  in  no  shrine,  it  is  hid  in  no  re- 
cesses ;  it  is  veiled  in  no  obscurities ;  it  is  in- 
vested in  no  gloom,  whose  twilight  the  imagina- 
tion strives  vainly  to  penetrate,  only  to  be  left 
to  grope  among  shadows.  It  is  clothed  with  no 
darkness  to  call  forth  some  undefined  dread, 
where  awe  sinks  into  fear.  The  Christ  says, 
Fear  them  not ;  there  is  nothing  hidden  which  shall 
not  ~be  known. 

This  revelation  is  not  a  deposit,  placed  at  the 
disposal  and  within  the  disposition  of  a  certain 
corporation  of  men.  It  is  not  thus  to  be  subjected 
to  the  mutations  of  history.  It  is  not  liable  to  be 
borne  away,  as  in.  the  fortunes  of  ancient  war,  to 
some  alien  camps,  and  lodged  in  their  cities.  It 
is  not  to  be  transferred,  from  one  to  another,  as 
the  sacred  fire  that  was  guarded  in  pagan  tem- 
ples. It  is  not  an  esoteric  faith,  to  be  regarded 
as  the  private  stock  or  held  as  the  exclusive  pos- 
session of  any  man  or  body  of  men.  Its  revela- 
tion is  through  the  light  which  lighteth  every  man 
that  cometh  into  the  world. 

It  is  a  revelation  of  the  truth,  and  the  truth  is 
set  forth  as  one  with  the  life  of  God,  and  as  ele- 
mental in  the  life  of  man.  Its  requisition  is  of 
truth  in  the  inward  parts.  This  revelation,  in  its 


THE  VIRTUE  OF  KNOWLEDGE.  93 

.  oneness  with  truth,  invokes  alike  conscience  and 
thought,  and  faith  and  love,  and  calls  them  forth 
to  their  field  in  the  world.1  It  consists  with  the 
furthest  reach  of  thought  in  its  unimpeded  ad- 
vance, as  it  bears  in  itself  the  reconciliation  of  all 
things.  It  does  not  fall  short ;  it  passes  on  before 
the  speculation  of  philosophy  and  the  aspiration 
of  religion.  This  revelation  gives  to  philosophy 
its  enduring  strength  and  its  immortal  interest. 
There  are  no  impassable  barriers  for  thought,  and 
no  forces  to  bring  to  thought  the  intimation  of 
their  presence,  only  to  baffle  and  elude  the  thought 
of  man.  And  the  emotion  of  religion  is  pervaded 
with  an  awe  which  is  not  obscured  with  dread, 
and  has  its  exaltation  with  knowledge.  It  is  the 
unfolding  of  that  germ  where  from  faith  grows 
virtue,  and  from  virtue  knowledge.  It  penetrates 
with  a  life  and  power  that  has  more  than  finite 
values, 

"  all  knowledge 
That  the  sons  of  men 
Shall  gather  in  the  cycled  times." 

This  revelation,  through  all  its  gradual  discoveries, 
must  consist  with  the  inquiry  for  truth  in  every 

1  "  The  dispensation  of  principles  and  of  statutes  is  the  same  dis- 
tinction that  appears  in  the  dispensation  of  Christ  and  of  the  an- 
gels. (Hebrews,  i.  2.)  The  dispensation  of  Christ  embraces  in  it 
a  oneness  with  the  mind  of  God;  not  merely  a  readiness  to  do  his 
will  when  we  know  it,  but  a  participation  in  his  mind,  so  that  by  a 
participation  in  the  divine  nature  we  enter  into  the  reason  of  his 
will,  and  do  not  merely  obey  the  authority  of  his  will. 

**  A  phrase  which  corresponds  to  this  distinction  is  that  this  is  a 


94  THE  REVELATION  OF  GOD. 

fact,  that  is  brought  to  the  knowledge  of  man,  of 
the  course  and  condition  of  the  world.  It  brings 
to  the  finite  its  true  measures  of  value,  in  the  pres- 
ence of  the  infinite.  It  comes  with  light  for  all 
the  depths  and  heights  of  human  nature.  The 
traces  and  tendencies  of  evil,  of  the  forces  work- 
ing toward  corruption  and  death,  the  struggle  and 
the  conflict  of  nature,  and  the  contradictions  of 
the  world,  in  the  limitations  of  the  finite,  —  these 
consist  with  the  redemption  and  the  reconcilia- 
tion, and  have  alone  their  solution  in  the  mani- 
festation of  the  infinite.1  It  must  agree,  in  like 

doctrine  of  centres,  and  not  of  circumferences.  If  I  were  residing 
with  an  oracular  person,  I  should  be  in  the  condition  of  the  Jews 
/nth  regard  to  Moses.  I  should  be  living  under  a  messenger  certified 
by  God.  I  should  have  my  circumference  determined  for  me.  IJ 
the  Son  shall  make  you  free  ye  shall  be  free  indeed."  (Erskine,  Me- 
moirs, p.  145.) 

1  **  When  there  comes  to  the  conscience  the  revelation  of  a  recon- 
ciled and  reconciling  God,  of  one  who  has  manifested  his  only  begot- 
ten Son,  bearing  the  burden  which  we  could  not  bear,  taking  away 
the  sin  of  the  world,  all  is  changed.  That  which  was  sought  in  noth- 
ingness is  found  in  a  Father.  The  death  of  self  is  the  beginning  of  a 
new  life,  of  affections,  energies,  memories,  hopes.  These  have  their 
fruition  in  God.  These  realize  their  glory  when  he  is  revealed. 

Therefore  it  is  true,  as  of  old,  that  the  desire  of  nations  is  for  a 
Christ,  a  Son  of  man;  but  for  a  Christ,  a  Son  of  man,  in  whom  we 
may  see  the  Father.  Therefore  it  is  true,  as  of  old,  that  the  preach- 
ers of  a  gospel  to  the  Gentiles  must  go  forth  telling  them  that  the 
Word  who  is  their  light  took  flesh  and  dwelt  on  earth,  and  suffered 
the  death  of  the  cross,  and  that  they  may  be  signed  with  the  sign  of 
his  cross;  but  it  is  because  the  wisdom  and  power  of  God  were  revealed 
at  Calvary ;  it  is  because  the  assurance  was  given  there  that  sinful 
and  dying  men  shall  hereafter  behold  the  face  of  God,  and  that  his 
name  shall  be  on  their  foreheads."  (Maurice,  Sermons,  voL  iii 
p.  128.) 


THE  KNOWLEDGE   OF   GOD.  95 

manner,  with  that  which  is  brought  to  the  knowl- 
edge of  man  of  the  course  and  condition  of  the 
historical  world.  If  there  were  no  strife  within 
and  without  of  forces  called  good  and  evil,  no 
dominations  and  no  slaveries;  if  there  were  no 
assurance  of  a  victory  over  the  world,  no  sug- 
gestion of  a  glory  that  might  invest  humanity, 
there  might  be  no  consistence  with  a  redemption, 
nor  justification  of  a  restoration  and  an  eternal 
life. 

This  does  not  imply  a  mere  analogy  of  the  con- 
stitution and  course  of  nature.  Analogy  is  only 
an  illustrative  form  of  argument,  and  is  formed 
in  material  moulds  and  subject  to  material  con- 
ditions. But  the  facts  of  this  constitution  and 
course  of  nature,  as  they  are  brought  within  the 
knowledge  of  the  conscience  and  the  conscious- 
ness of  men,  have  in  this  revelation  their  recog- 
nition and  reconciliation. 

Revelation  to  man  could  not  avail,  unless  man 
could  recognize  its  adaptation  to  his  nature,  to 
complete  it.  It  is  to  become  the  fulfillment  of 
his  nature.  Thus  the  relation  of  nature  with  God 
may  be  manifested,  not  in  the  deflection  of  its 
types,  but  in  the  persistence  and  attainment  to- 
ward perfection  of  its  types,  as  man  through  nature 
is  brought  with  the  more  perfect  realization  of  the 
ideal,  nearer  to  God,  in  whom  the  ideal  and  the 
real  are  one. 

This  revelation,  in  its  gradual  discoveries  of  facts 


96  THE     REVELATION  OF  GOD. 

which  are  deeper  than  those  that  are  the  result  of 
observation,  brings  its  aid  to  science,  which  is  the 
knowledge  resultant  from  the  observation  of  the 
phenomena  of  the  physical  world.1  There  is,  then, 
no  controversy  between  this  revelation  and  sci- 
ence. This  revelation  brings  to  man,  in  the  high- 
est ranges  of  thought,  the  very  postulates  on  which 
science  rests,  and  the  conditions  of  its  advance- 
ment. This  revelation  bears  in  itself  the  one  cat- 
egory of  the  truth.  It  recognizes  the  conditions 
of  progress  in  the  knowledge  of  the  truth.  It 
contends  with  ignorance  and  with  superstition,  in 
their  extreinest  forms,  because  it  recognizes  not 

1  It  is  said  that  when  theology  says  revelation  science  says  law, 
and  thence  a  conflict  is  assumed.  This  is  a  mere  preliminary,  it  is 
superficial,  as  if  when  revelation  says  freedom  science  says  law;  for 
science,  as  the  resultant  of  the  observation  of  the  physical  world, 
does  not  allow  freedom,  and  cannot  get  on  with  it,  for  the  condition 
of  the  physical  is  that  of  necessity,  and,  in  its  limitation,  it  does  not 
consist  with  freedom. 

In  this  revelation  is  the  realization  of  the  life  and  freedom  of  the 
spirit.  The  necessary  physical  process  is  not  annulled ;  this  reve- 
lation brings  a  divine  light  to  the  course  and  conflict  of  the  physical 
world,  but  it  can  be  only  to  him  that  receives  it. 

And  there  is  no  demonstration  of  the  being  of  the  physical  world. 
If  one  denies  its  being,  no  proof  can  meet  the  denial.  It  is  true  that 
man  by  the  senses  —  by  the  physical  organs  —  has  a  direct  per- 
ception of  the  physical  world,  the  eye  sees,  and  it  is  a  waste  of 
thought  to  carry  the  subject  through  metaphysical  speculation.  But 
this  does  not  demonstrate  the  certainty  of  the  physical  world  to  one 
who  denies  it.  Then  it  is  alone  the  spirit  in  man  that  discerns  the 
things  of  the  spirit.  It  may  be  said  that  one  lives  and  acts  on  the 
assumption  of  the  existence  of  the  physical ;  but  in  a  higher  degree 
it  is  true  that  man  lives  and  acts  on  the  assumption  of  the  reality  o 
toe  spiritual. 


EEVELATION  AND   SCIENCE.  97 

only  their  intellectual  degradation,  but  their  moral 
debasement  and  defilement. 

It  acknowledges  the  unity  and  universality  that 
are  elements  of  the  truth  ;  but  these,  while  they 
form  the  conditions  of  science,  are  not  the  result 
of  the  observation  of  phenomena,  nor  the  fruit  of 
research.  It  also  asserts  this  unity  and  universal 
ity  beyond  the  apprehension  of  the  understand- 
ing in  its  cognition  of  physical  phenomena,  not  as 
embraced  in  the  propositions  of  an  abstract  knowl- 
edge, but  as  attaining  their  realization  through 
the  reconciliation  of  all  things  in  the  spirit. 

This  revelation  recognizes  the  facts  in  the  spir- 
itual life  of  man.  It  does  not  here  and  now  assume 
in  any  moment  the  final  determination  of  them,  but 
it  does  not  evade  nor  ignore  them.  In  the  course 
of  the  historical  life  of  the  world,  the  sin  and  the 
righteousness  and  the  judgment  of  the  world  are 
facts.  The  world  will  not  lose  the  conviction  of 
them.  It  may  make  the  study  of  its  universities 
exclusively  the  physical  process,  until  at  last  its 
study  of  the  political  life  of  man,  of  which  once 
Aristotle  and  Hegel  were  masters,  becomes  the 
study  of  the  physics  of  politics.  Then- the  names 
in  its  memorial  halls  become  only  the  record  of 
molecular  combinations,  which  in  a  disturbance  of 
forces  indicated,  in  the  necessary  and  resultant 
process,  certain  ethical  phenomena,  but  which  are 
to  disappear,  leaving  no  wrack  behind,  when  the 
earth  is  cold  at  its  centre,  and  motion  ceases  with 


98  THE   REVELATION  OF  GOD. 

the  equalization  of  temperature.1  This  revelation 
avoids  and  rejects  no  facts  in  the  spiritual  con- 
dition of  the  world.  It  recognizes  the  slavery 
and  the  emergence  from  slavery  through  the  re- 
demption of  man.  It  bears  the  burden  of  a  sor- 
row which  is  illumined  by  no  light  of  earth,  but 
is  sustained  by  a  joy  in  the  midst  of  sorrow  which 
no  gloom  of  earth  can  quench. 

In  science  as  the  knowledge  of  the  process  of 
the  physical  world,  there  is  a  discovery,  —  in  that 
form  a  revelation  of  that  which  is  actual,  and 
science  in  its  furthest  advance  becomes  the 
stronger  ally  of  this  revelation  of  God.  The 
contest  of  each  is  with  vice  and  crime,  with  the 
manias  and  fevers  that  shatter  men,  with  the 
slavery  of  the  world,  and  the  forces  which  tend 
to  the  division  and  degradation  of  humanity. 

1  It  is  the  recent  school  of  physical  science  that  undermines 
the  postulates  of  science,  when,  consistently  with  its  position,  it 
draws  men  within  the  immediate  observation  and  induction  which 
it  alone  allows.  Mr.  Clifford,  who  brought  to  the  physical  school 
a  clear  intelligence  and  a  sincerity  that  did  not  evade  its  conclu- 
sions, says,  "If  we  were  to  travel  forward  as  we  have  traveled 
backward  in  time,  and  consider  things  as  falling  together,  we 
should  come  to  a  central  mass,  all  in  one  piece,  which  would  send 
out  waves  of  heat  through  a  perfectly  empty  ether,  and  gradually 
cool  down.  As  this  mass  got  cool,  it  would  be  deprived  of  all  life 
and  motion.  But  that  conclusion,  like  the  one  that  we  discussed 
about  the  beginning  of  the  world,  is  one  which  we  have  no  right 
whatever  to  rest  upon.  It  depends  upon  the  same  assumption:  that 
the  laws  of  geometry  and  mechanics  are  exactly  and  absolutely 
true,  and  that  they  will  continue  exactly  and  absolutely  true  for 
ever  and  ever.  Such  an  assumption  we  have  no  right  whatever 
to  make.'"  (Clifford,  Lectures  and  Essays,  vol.  i.  p.  224.) 


KEVELATION  AND   SCIENCE.  99 

This  revelation  comes  to  man  with  the  assump- 
tion that  he  can  know  the  truth,  and  that  his 
destination  is  freedom.  It  apprehends  him  not 
simply  as  an  individual,  but  in  the  attainment  of 
the  knowledge  and  realization  of  the  universal. 
It  passes  beyond  that  conception  which  in  the 
postulates  of  the  physical  world  restricts  his  whole 
being  to  physical  conditions,  determining  in  its 
optimism  and  pessimism  the  theoretical  equivalent 
of  this  whole. 

In  the  progress  of  humanity  there  is  the  ampler 
revelation,  the  clearer  recognition,  of  the  eternal, 
and  the  realization  of  it  in  truth  and  freedom.  As 
there  may  be  an  increase  in  the  knowledge  of  the 
elements  and  conditions  of  a  physical  process,  so 
there  may  be  an  advancing  knowledge  of  spirit- 
ual life  and  relations.  There  has  been  no  nation, 
but  in  the  beginnings  of  its  history  there  was  the 
consciousness  of  a  relation  to  a  world  which  it 
did  not  conquer  with  its  swords,  and  whose  fruits 
it  did  not  gather  in  its  barns  nor  exchange  in 
its  markets.  There  has  been  none  which,  in  the 
greater  periods  of  its  history,  did  not  recognize 
ends  whose  worth  had  no  estimate  in  material 
values,  and  in  the  crises  of  its  history  did  not  call 
for  an  effort  for  which  its  economists  could  find 
no  rate  of  compensation  in  the  wages  of  labor. 

In  this  revelation  there  is  the  manifestation 
and  realization  of  the  divine  reconciliation.  In 


100  THE  EEVELATION  OF  GOD. 

this  revelation  God  passes  judgment  upon  things 
finite,  and  in  their  relation  with  things  infinite. 
The  ultimate  criteria  of  judgment  are  brought  to 
the  knowledge  of  man. 

This  revelation  does  not  thus  come  to  man  in 
the  assertion  of  a  dominion  over  him.  It  is  light 
that  brings  life,  and  the  germination  of  freedom 
and  its  energies.  S.  Paul  writes :  It  is  not  that 
we  have  dominion  over  your  faith,  but  are  helpers 
of  your  joy,  for  by  faith  ye  stand.  It  has  been 
said  that  submission  to  authority  is  a  counterfeit 
of  faith,  and  the  witness  to  this  revelation  is 
not  external  to  it,  but  is  borne  within  it. 

This  revelation  alone  can  satisfy  humanity.  It 
is  vain  to  say,  when  one  reads  the  pages  of  the  lit- 
erature of  the  world  through  the  courses  of  its 
history,  and  in  its  higher  forms,  the  pages  of 
Aristotle  and  Kant  or  of  ^Eschylus  and  Shake- 
speare, that  man  does  not  care  for  God,  nor  that 
he  will  loose  himself  from  all  thought  of  him  or 
of  a  relation  to  him,  or  that  he  will  hold  his  life 
wholly  within  the  limitations  of  the  finite.  The 
life  of  man  has  not  its  perfect  satisfaction  in  the 
finite.  It  will  not  rest  in  a  detachment  from 
relations  to  the  infinite,  nor  in  the  assumption  that 
God  is  an  unknown. 

This  revelation  gives  its  character  to  the  work 


REVELATION  AND   SCIENCE.  101 

of  those  who  come  with  a  message  to  men.  They 
are  to  bring  that  which  has  been  given  them  to 
bring.  They  are  not  to  impose  on  it  the  limits 
of  their  own  notions,  but  to  take  heed  lest  their 
own  notions  may  mingle  with  it.  It  is  not  sim- 
ply their  own  private  stock  in  which  they  deal. 
It  is  not  to  be  held  in  their  own  dole,  but  as  they 
receive  freely,  they  are  to  give  freely.  They  are 
not  the  constabulary  of  the  truth,  but  the  heralds 
of  it.  They  are  not  the  ministers  of  religion,  but 
the  messengers  of  God. 

In  the  revelation  of  God,  his  manifestation  is 
limited,  though  it  be  a  self-limitation,  by  the 
forms  through  which  the  revelation  is  made  ;  as 
it  may  be  said  of  light  that  shines  in  the  dark 
that  the  darkness  comprehends  it  not.  In  the 
physical  process,  as  there  can  be  no  manifestation 
of  the  will  in  its  freedom,  there  can  be  no  reve- 
lation of  beauty  which  is  not  in  transient  forms ; 
there  can  be  no  revelation  of  that  which  is  eth- 
ical, except  in  types  that  derive  their  significance 
from  the  interpretation  that  man  may  give  to 
them,  or  the  uses  that  he  may  derive  from  them. 
Thus  art  can  only  take  these  types  and  forms  of 
nature,  and  employ  them  in  the  expression  of  its 
own  ideal.  It  works  in  them  with  the  creative 
imagination,  and  this  gives  its  dignity  to  art, 
though  man,  in  the  work  of  the  creative  imagi- 
nation, while  recognizing  the  profusion  of  these 


102  THE  REVELATION  OF  GOD. 

types  in  nature,  is  conscious  of  the  limitation  of 
the  material  through  which  he  himself  works. 

The  revelation  of  the  spirit  and  to  the  spirit 
is  not  within  the  limitation  of  finite  forms.  It 
is  not  limited  to  the  things  that  are  visible. 

This  revelation  is  not,  then,  simply  relative,  as 
if  determined  in  external  conditions.  The  truth 
consists  with  the  consciousness  of  truth  in  man, 
the  reason  with  the  reason,  the  righteousness  with 
the  righteousness,  in  man. 

All  that  God  is  he  imparts,  he  reveals :  he 
does  not  disguise  himself  that  man  may  not  know 
the  absolute  beauty  ;  he  does  not  withdraw  him- 
self that  man  may  not  know  the  absolute  good- 
ness ;  he  does  not  conceal  himself  that  man  may 
not  know  the  absolute  truth. 

This  revelation  is  not  simply  an  incident  in 
the  life  of  man,  as  a  moment  in  the  limitations 
of  time  ;  it  is  of  the  knowledge  of  the  eternal ; 
it  is  continuous ;  it  is  a  revelation  through  ex- 
perience and  through  history ;  it  is  in  us ;  it  is 
from  God,  it  is  of  the  Christ,  it  is  the  life  of  the 
Spirit. 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE  REVELATION  OF  GOD  IN  THE  CHRIST. 

THE  revelation  of  God  is  in  the  person  of  the 
Christ. 

It  is  as  a  person  that  God  is  revealed  to  the 
world. 

There  is  the  manifestation  of  God  in  the  Christ. 

This  revelation  is  not  in  any  intellectual  or  his- 
torical form ;  nor  in  any  form  or  order  external  to 
man. 

It  is  not  in  a  system  or  a  series  of  propositions, 
in  which  an  abstract  truth  is  presented  to  man 
for  the  assent  of  his  judgment,  and  on  which  his 
faith  is  to  rest ;  nor  is  it  in  a  process  of  thought 
through  which  man  is  to  advance,  as  in  the  se- 
quence of  logic ;  nor  in  an  isolated  event  in  some 
detached  epoch  of  history,  which  is  thus  made 
other  than  the  common  process  of  history ;  nor  in 
an  abstract  law,  as  a  code,  that  with  a  body  of 
statutes  is  promulgated  for  the  government  of 
man,;  nor  in  the  formulas  of  a  system  of  ethics 
which  is  to  shape  the  conduct  of  man. 

This  revelation  is  not  in  a  life  that  is  external 
to  God,  or  external  to  man  :  it  is  in  a  life  that 
is  in  relation  with  God  and  in  relation  with  man  ; 


104  THE   REVELATION  OF  GOD  IN  CHRIST. 

it  is  in  a  life  that  is  one  with  God  and  one  with 
man. 

It  is  a  revelation  of  a  life  that  is  continuously 
one  with  God  and  one  with  man,  in  the  heavenlies, 
to  use  the  terms  which  are  simplest  and  deepest, 
and  are  brought  by  an  apostle  into  the  common 
life  of  men.  It  is  not  one  with  God  and  one  with 
man,  as  an  incident  in  the  circumstance  of  a  finite 
condition.  It  is  not  thus  determined  by  the  limit- 
ations and  subject  to  the  measures  of  time  and 
space. 

There  is  in  the  revelation  in  the  Christ  the 
manifestation  of  the  consciousness  of  perfect  unity 
with  God.  This  consciousness  is  the  witness  to 
the  reality.  This  unity  with  God  is  not  simply 
the  product  of  consciousness,  but  is  the  reality, 
and  has  its  evidence  in  the  consciousness.  The 
Christ  manifests  the  consciousness  of  that  unity 
with  God,  in  which  he  was  one  with  God  before 
the  world  was,  and  that  unity  was  maintained 
without  being  broken  in  and  through  the  world. 

There  is  the  consciousness  also  of  perfect  unity 
with  man.  This  had  its  process  and  realization  in 
the  human  consciousness  :  this  is  the  product  of 
the  human  consciousness.  It  is  a  unity  that  is  re- 
vealed as  in  the  will  of  God  before  the  world  was ; 
t  is  a  unity  that  was  manifested  and  maintained 
without  being  broken  in  and  through  the  world. 
But  this  human  consciousness  of  perfect  unity 


ABRAHAM  AND  THE  CHRIST.        105 

with  humanity  was  realized  through  a  historical 
and  in  an  ethical  process  in  the  world,  while  the 
very  ground  of  that  ethical  process  was  the  con- 
sciousness of  perfect  unity  with  God. 

There  is  the  perfect  revelation  of  God  in  the 
Christ.  It  is  in  this  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  one  who 
could  say,  before  Abraham  was,  I  am;  it  is  in 
one  who  could  say,  in  the  manifestation  of  an  eter- 
nal life  to  men,  and  now,  0  Father,  glorify  thou 
me  with  thine  own  self,  with  the  glory  which  I  had 
with  thee  before  the  world  was  ;  and  again,  Father, 
I  will  that  they  also  whom  thou  hast  given  me  be 
with  me  where  I  am ;  that  they  may  behold  my 
glory  which  thou  hast  given  me,  for  thou  lovedst 
me  before  the  foundation  of  the  world. 

Thenceforth  in  his  own  life  in  the  world,  and 
through  the  human  consciousness,  there  was  the 
perfect  realization  of  unity  with  humanity. 

The  Son  of  God  became  the  Son  of  man.  This 
denotes  the  perfect  relation  to  God,  —  the  perfect 
oneness  with  the  Father  and  perfect  oneness  with 
humanity.  It  is  the  perfect  and  perfected  rela- 
tion of  humanity  with  God  which  is  the  ground 
and  condition  of  the  fulfillment  of  the  life  of  hu- 
manity. This  name  —  the  Son  of  man  —  does 
not  indicate  the  mere  incident  of  a  life  in  cer- 
tain human  relations,  in  a  certain  place  and  time, 
as  in  the  circumstance  of  the  life  of  the  indi- 


106  THE  REVELATION  OF  GOD  IN  CHRIST. 

vidual.  It  is  not  thus  measured,  nor  is  it  thus 
detached  and  circumscribed.  It  indicates  a  life  in 
relations  that  are  realized  and  fulfilled  through 
the  perfected  human  life  of  the  Christ  on  earth 
in  his  oneness  with  humanity.  It  indicates  a  life 
that  is  continuous  and  organic.  It  is  a  life  that  is 
not  simply  finite,  and  does  not  end  in  death,  which 
in  itself  is  the  finite  in  continuing,  although 
changed,  finite  relations.  There  is  through  death 
the  recognition  of  the  infinite.  The  power  given 
to  the  Christ  has  its  continuous  working  toward  its 
realization  in  the  life  of  humanity.  Thenceforth 
one  has  passed  into  the  heavens  who  has  a  con- 
tinuing relation  with  man,  who  is  the  brother  of 
man,  who  sits  at  the  right  hand  of  the  Father. 

This  term  —  the  Son  of  man  —  is  not  thus  the 
merely  repeated  phrase  of  an  oriental  form  of 
thought,  to  appear  with  monotonous  and  unmean- 
ing recurrence  as  the  mere  transcript  of  an  earlier 
writer  ;  it  has  here  other  and  larger  uses. 

It  denotes  his  own  personal  life,  his  life  on 
the  earth ;  and  it  denotes  also  his  life  in  his  one- 
ness with  humanity.  It  denotes  a  relation  with 
humanity  which  is  personal  and  universal.  It  is 
the  real  and  continuous  union  and  relation  —  the 
spiritual  relation  of  the  Christ  with  humanity. 

Thus,  for  instance,  this  expression  in  the  af- 
firmation of  a  universal  principle,  and  again  of  a 
divine  life,  is  given  in  the  words,  the  Son  of 
man  is  Lord  of  the  sabbath. 


HUMAN  LIFE.  107 

The  term  is  used  of  him  in  his  own  life,  in 
words  that  reflect  the  strange  contrast  of  the 
life  of  man  on  this  earth  with  every  other  form 
of  life  in  the  world  of  nature ;  the  foxes  have 
holes,  and  the  birds  of  the  air  have  nests  ;  ~but  the 
Son  of  man  hath  not  where  to  lay  his  head. 

It  is  used  again  of  his  own  suffering  with  men, 
and  with  the  suffering  of  men,  and  in  the  vision 
of  things  to  come,  and  in  contrast  with  an  indi- 
vidual advancement  that  looks  for  a  separate  ex- 
altation ;  the  Son  of  man  must  suffer  many  things, 
and  be  rejected  of  the  priests  and  the  elders  and 
the  scribes,  and  be  slain ;  and  again,  let  these 
sayings  sink  deep  into  your  ears  :  for  the  Son  of 
man  shall  be  delivered  into  the  hands  of  men. 
But  they  understood  not  this  saying :  then  there 
arose  a  reasoning  among  them,  which  of  them 
should  be  greatest,  and  Jesus,  perceiving  the  thought 
of  their  heart,  took  a  child,  and  set  him  by  him, 
and  said  unto  them,  Whosoever  shall  receive  this 
child  in  my  name  receiveth  me,  and  whosoever 
shall  receive  me  receiveth  him  that  sent  me.1 

1  "  With  more  confidence  and  earnestness  I  would  hold  fast  those 
creeds  and  that  catechism  which  the  men  of  progress  tell  us  that  we 
must  sacrifice  to  the  interests  of  a  general  humanity.  For  the  sake  of 
that  general  humanity, — because  I  believe  it  is  in  danger  of  being 
utterly  trampled  upon,  or  of  becoming  a  trumpery  name  which  has 
no  reality  answering  to  it,  —  I  would  keep  those  treasures  which 
have  been  intrusted  to  us.  I  can  believe  in  a  general,  in  a  univer- 
sal humanity,  while  I  believe  in  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord,  who  was 
born  of  the  Virgin  Mary,  suffered  under  Pontius  Pilate,  was  cruci- 
fied, dead,  and  buried,  descended  into  hell,  rose  again  the  third  day, 


108  THE   REVELATION  OF   GOD  IN   CHRIST. 

The  Christ  entered  into  the  common  life  of 
men,  and  again  made  this  the  assertion  of  a  uni- 
versal principle  ;  the  Son  of  man  is  come  eating 
and  drinking  ;  and  ye  say,  Behold  a  gluttonous 
man  and  a  wine-bibber,  a  friend  of  publicans  and 
sinners!  but  wisdom  is  justified  of  all  her  chil- 
dren. 

The  term  —  the  coming  of  the  Son  of  man  — 
is  used  of  his  relations  with  humanity,  that  did  not 
terminate  with  his  existence  on  earth,  but  had  a 
more  perfect  fulfillment.  It  describes  the  advent 
of  the  days  of  humanity ;  the  night  is  far  spent, 
and  the  dominations  that  crush  the  spirits  of  men 
are  being  overcome  and  overthrown,  and  judgment 
is  manifested.  It  is  a  day  of  judgment,  and  the 
might  is  manifest  of  truth  and  righteousness  and 
freedom.  This  is  the  divine  life  that  is  given  to 
men,  —  the  coming  of  the  Son  of  man. 

The  Christ  charged  the  disciples,  as  they  went 
from  the  mount  of  Transfiguration,  tell  the  vision 
to  no  man,  until  the  Son  of  man  be  risen  again 
from  the  dead ;  and  again,  when  they  persecute 

sitteth  at  tlie  right  hand  of  God,  and  shall  come  again  to  judge  the 
quick  and  the  dead.  I  can  assert  that  humanity  in  the  very  terms  of 
the  creed,  against  those  who  would  separate  believers  from  the  rest 
of  human  beings,  —  who  would  exalt  the  sect  of  Christians  against 
the  race  which  the  Church  of  Christ,  which  Christ  himself,  represents. 
But  if  I  am  deprived  of  this  faith,  the  word  humanity  expresses 
either  an  ideal  which  has  never  been  realized,  or  else  a  sentiment 
confined  to  a  few  fine  people,  or  else  the  aggregate  of  all  the  sin  and 
suffering  which  is  scattered  over  the  world."  (Maurice,  Sermons 
vol.  ii.  p.  48.) 


THE  ADVENT. 

you  in  this  city,  flee  into  another  ;  fc 
unto  you,  ye  shall  not  have  gone 
of  Israel  till  the  Son  of  man  be  come.  "It 
an  event  that  was  to  take  place  in  their  day. 
The  Christ  says  again,  if  any  man  shall  say  unto 
you,  Lo,  here  is  Christ,  or  there;  believe  it  not; 
if  they  shall  say  unto  you,  behold  he  is  in  the 
desert,  go  not  forth;  behold  he  is  in  the  secret 
chambers,  believe  it  not:  for  as  the  lightning 
cometh  out  of  the  east,  and  shineth  even  unto  the 
west,  so  shall  also  the  coming  of  the  Son  of 
man  be. 

,  The  days  and  years  shall  come  and  go,  but  this 
coming  is  not  the  mere  sequence  of  time.  It  is 
not  the  evolution  of  forces  determined  in  a 
merely  finite  process.  It  shall  be  as  the  tide  of 
life  sweeps  on  with  its  mingled  change.  It  shall 
blend  with  the  varying  circumstance  of  life.  The 
illustration  of  it  may  be  drawn  from  the  mythical 
or  the  actual  incident  of  history,  and  it  may  in- 
dicate only  that  traditional  knowledge  of  histor- 
ical events  of  a  formal  character  which  belonged 
to  the  contemporary  conditions  of  human  life ;  but 
it  becomes  the  illustration  of  a  universal  principle 
that  is  to  have  its  perfect  realization.  The  words 
are  verified  in  the  most  recent  ages,  in  the  ex- 
perience of  men  and  nations,  that  they  become  no 
more  the  figure  of  a  remote  imagery  in  history : 
as  the  days  of  Noe,  so  shall  also  the  coming  of 
the  Son  of  man  be  ;  for  as  in  the  days  that  icere 


110    THE  EEVELATION  OF  GOD  IN  CHRIST. 

"before  the  flood,  they  were  eating  and  drinking, 
marrying  and  giving  in  marriage,  and  knew  not 
until  the  flood  came  and  took  them  all  away ;  so 
shall  also  the  coming  of  the  Son  of  man  be.  It 
does  not  need  the  verification  of  a  remote  age ;  it 
is  verified.  It  is  to  come  as  the  world  fares  on 
with  its  toil  and  traffic,  through  its  secular  days : 
likewise  also  as  it  was  in  the  days  of  Lot ;  they  did 
eat,  they  drank,  they  bought,  they  sold,  they  planted, 
they  builded ;  but  the  same  day  that  Lot  went  out 
of  Sodom  it  rained  fire  and  brimstone  :  even  thus 
shall  it  be  in  the  day  when  the  Son  of  man  is  re- 
vealed. 

The  same  term  is  used  of  the  future,  as  it  shall 
come  to  his  disciples;  and  he  said  unto  his  dis- 
ciples, the  time  shall  come  when  ye  shall  desire  to 
see  one  of  the  days  of  the  Son  of  man,  and  shall 
not  see  it 

The  Christ,  as  the  close  of  his  existence  on 
earth  approaches,  and  his  suffering  and  death  are 
near,  in  answer  to  his  accusers,  asserts  that  exal- 
tation of  humanity  that  was  to  the  elders  and  the 
chief  priests  and  the  scribes  the  deepest  offense ; 
the  elders  and  the  chief  priests  and  the  scribes 
came  together,  and  led  him  into  their  council,  say- 
ing,  Art  ihou  the  Christ  ?  Tell  us.  And  he  said, 
If  I  tell  you,  ye  will  not  believe.  Hereafter  shall 
the  Son  nf  man  sit  on  the  right  hand  of  the  power 
of  God.  This  is  the  exaltation  which  the  Christ, 


THE  ADVENT.  Ill 

through  the  suffering  and  death  of  man  on  this 
earth,  has  wrought  for  humanity.  This  is  the 
power  that  is  given  to  humanity.  The  Son  of 
God  became  the  Son  of  man,  that  man  might  be 
raised  to  the  life  of  the  Son  of  God. 

The  advent  of  the  Christ,  the  coming  of  the 
Son  of  man,  is  not  thus  a  short  and  isolated  event 
in  history,  to  be  followed  by  ages  and  crises  in  hu- 
man experience  in  which  he  is  detached  from  it, 
and  then  to  bring  history  to  its  close  with  the  re- 
currence of  the  same  event  at  a  more  remote 
time.  The  Christ  is  revealed.1  The  Christ  the  Son 
of  man  has  come ;  he  may  be  always  coming ;  he 
is  to  come.  The  coming  may  be  in  the  passing 
away  of  that  which  is  old ;  in  the  doom  of  some 
inhuman  system,  as  that  of  slavery,  which  has 
bound  up  with  destruction  the  life  of  the  family 
and  the  nation,  and  through  some  holy  war,  and 
in  the  ordination  of  society  in  the  family  and  the 
nation  upon  enduring  foundations;  but  —  it  will 
come  to  men  as  they  follow  their  fortunes,  as  they 
buy  and  sell,  and  build  and  plant,  though  it  may 

1  ' '  We  may  admit  that  when  our  Lord  says,  In  such  an  hour  as  ye 
think  not  the  Si  n  of  man  cometh,  he  gives  us  all  and  more  than  all 
the  warning  respecting  the  hour  of  death  which  preachers  have  ever 
drawn  out  of  his  words.  We  may  conceive  ourselves  to  be  under  a 
law  of  selfishness,  and  may  act  as  though  we  had  no  ties  and  rela- 
tionships to  those  around  us:  to  each  death,  as  any  event,  may  be  a 
coming  of  the  Son  of  man,  to  pass  into  a  region  where  we  cannot 
escape  that  divine  law  of  love  which  binds  man  and  man,  which 
binds  earth  and  heaven  together."  (Maurice,  Sermons,  vol.  i.  p, 
12.) 


112  THE  REVELATION  OF  GOD  IN  CHRIST. 

come  with  the  confounding  of  their  schemes,  and 
with  the  disturbance  of  their  theories,  and  with 
disaster  to  the  plans  they  have  framed.  Know 
this,  that  if  the  good  man  of  the  house  had  known 
in  what  watch  the  thief  would  come,  he  would  have 
watched,  and  would  not  have  suffered  his  house 
to  be  broken  up  ;  therefore,  be  ye  also  ready,  for 
in  such  an  hour  as  ye  think  not,  the  Son  of  man 
cometh. 

But  the  courses  and  crises  in  the  experience 
of  men  and  nations,  as  they  pass,  bring  but  an 
imperfect  apprehension  of  the  coming  of  the  Son 
of  man.  It  may  with  time  become  deeper,  as 
there  comes  breaking  through  the  years  the  rev- 
elation of  the  life  of  humanity  with  the  Christ, 
—  the  glorified  life  of  humanity,  the  appearing  of 
the  Son  of  man,  who  sits  at  the  right  hand  of 
God. 

The  coming  of  the  Son  of  man  is  thus  always  at 
hand ;  it  is  a  constant  motive  to  duty.  It  diverts 
the  thought  of  men  from  the  apathy  and  dread  of 
a  fatalism  in  which  the  world  fares  on,  and  from 
following  here  and  there  after  the  signs  and  sig- 
nals of  the  crises  that  may  be.  It  does  not  ad- 
journ the  thoughts  of  men  to  some  remote  date, 
some  distant  season,  in  which  one  shall  come  in 
the  guise  of  a  king,  in  certain  external  relations, 
to  judge  and  rule  the  earth.  It  is  represented 
to  those  in  that  age,  and  in  every  age,  as  an  event 
for  which  they  are  to  be  ready,  which  may  come 


THE  ADVENT.  113 

suddenly.  It  does  not  allow  delay.  The  world 
may  be  concerned  with  that  which  is  visible ;  and 
systems  which  divide  and  degrade  men  may  pre- 
vail ;  and  the  force  of  fashion  or  of  money,  the 
idols  of  the  avenue  and  the  market,  may  be  the 
object  of  worship  in  the  streets  of  the  city,  so  that 
men  seek  to  win  their  prizes  and  to  be  counted  in 
their  companies;  and  tyrannies  may  chain  down 
the  spirits  of  men,  and  sects  ride  over  them,  and 
parties  may  count  them  as  their  own,  to  buy  and 
sell ;  and  lies  seem  stronger  than  the  truth ;  and 
darkness  may  cover  the  land,  so  as  to  lead  many 
of  the  very  elect  to  fall  away  and  not  vainly  may 
the  words  be  spoken,  when  the  Son  of  man  com- 
eth,  shall  he  find  faith  on  the  earth  ?  and  yet  — 
that  darkness  is  not  to  quench  hope,  nor  shut  the 
thoughts  of  men  within  the  clouds  that  sweep  the 
closing  horizon  of  earth ;  in  such  an  hour  as  ye 
think  not,  the  Son  of  man  cometh. 

The  coming  of  the  Son  of  man  is  in  judgment 
on  the  powers  which  enslave  and  degrade  man, 
and  in  the  manifestation  of  righteousness,  in  the 
crises  in  the  life  of  humanity,  from  which  there 
comes  forth  a  renewed  life,  in  the  revelation  of 
the  divine  and  eternal  foundations  of  life.1  It  is 

1  "  One  of  these  great  acts  of  retribution  stood  out  before  the 
apostles  as  the  coming  of  the  Son  of  man  in  their  day.  It  gathered 
up  into  itself  all  the  history  of  the  previous  world;  it  inaugurated 
the  history  of  the  new  world. 

"  The  destruction  of  the  temple  was  to  be  the  sign  of  the  Son 
of  man."     (Maurice,  Sermons,  vol.  i.  p.  10.) 
S 


114  THE  KEVELATION  OF  GOD  IN  CHRIST. 

the  triumph  of  righteousness  in  the  manifestation 
of  truth  and  freedom,  which  is  not  the  product  of 
the  soil  and  climate  of  this  earth,  and  is  not  re- 
solved in  its  analysis  into  chemical  combinations, 
and  has  not  its  glory  in  the  grass  that  withereth 
and  flower  that  fadeth,  nor  in  the  colors  that  em- 
purple the  skies,  nor  in  the  winds  that  sweep  the 
fields  of  ocean.  It  has  a  divine  strength  through 
the  Son  of  God,  who  brings  to  it  that  glory  which 
he  had  with  the  Father,  before  the  world  was,  — 
the  glory  of  the  Son  of  man,  who  sitteth  at  the 
right  hand  of  God.1 

Through  the  death  of  the  Christ  the  limit  of 
the  finite  is  passed  in  the  realization  of  an  infinite 
life,  and  the  isolation  and  separation  of  death,  for 
humanity,  is  overcome.  In  the  vision  that  passed 
before  him  when  the  hour  of  the  powers  of  dark- 
ness was  approaching,  and  he  was  accused  and  re- 
jected of  the  elders  and  scribes  and  chief  priests, 
and  was  to  be  slain  as  a  malefactor  on  this  earth, 
he  said;  hereafter  shall  ye  see  the  Son  of  man 
sitting  on  the  right  hand  of  power,  and  coming  in 
the  clouds  of  heaven.  In  this  way,  S.  John  the 
Divine  says  of  that  life  in  that  timeless  aeon,  no 

1  "The  Christ  says,  Verily,  1  say  unto  you,  there  be  some  stand- 
ing here  which  shall  not  taste  of  death  till  they  see  the  Son  of  man 
coming  in  his  kingdom.  The  downfall  of  the  exclusive  nation  was 
therefore  an  authentic  testimony  that  a  kingdom  was  established 
which,  however  little  the  rulers  of  the  earth  might  confess  it, 
could  have  no  meaner  title  than  this,  the  kingdom  of  the  Son  of  man." 
(Maurice,  Sermons,  vol.  iv.  p.  141.) 


THE  ADVENT.  115 

man  hath  ascended  up  to  heaven,  but  he  that 
came  down  from  heaven,  the  Son  of  man,  which 
is  in  heaven. 

The  Christ  thenceforth  in  the  real  and  spiritual 
life  of  men  is  always  present ;  it  is  the  voice  of 
one  who  saith,  I  am  he  that  Uveth  and  was  dead, 
and  behold  I  am  alive  forevermore. 

The  Son  of  God  becomes  the  Son  of  man,  that 
man  may  be  brought  into  the  Sonship  of  God. 

The  revelation  of  God  in  the  Christ,  his  mani- 
festation in '  the  world,  is  as  a  person.  In  the 
Christ  there  was  the  perfect  realization  of  person- 
ality, the  self-determined  One,  in  the  Will  that 
was  one  with  the  Infinite,  with  the  righteous 
Father. 

There  is  in  personality  an  element  that  is  indi- 
vidual, but  this  subsists  with  finite  conditions  and 
relations ;  it  goes  on  with  the  inception  and  cir- 
cumstance of  a  physical  process  on  the  earth. 

There  is  in  personality  an  element  of  unity  and 
of  universality ;  the  realization  of  personality  in 
men  in  its  advance  is  thus  towards  the  universal. 

There  is  in  personality  an  element  that  is  rela- 
tive. This  relation  for  a  person  with  a  person  is 
not  and  cannot  be  simply  formal.  It  is  a  relation 
that  is  not  thus  between  persons,  but  in  persons. 
It  is  not,  therefore,  the  immediate  relation  which 
exists  between  simple  externals,  nor  can  its  media- 
tion be  simply  external. 


116  THE  KEVELATION  OF  GOD  IN  CHRIST. 

There  was  in  the  Christ  the  highest  and  fullest 
assertion  of  personality.  It  comes  out,  not  alone 
in  the  words  with  others,  call  no  man  master ; 
and  again,  /  call  you  not  servants,  but  friends ; 
it  is  in  the  words,  there  standeth  one  among  you 
who  is  greater  than  the  temple.  But  beyond  these 
come  the  words,  I  am  the  light  of  the  world ;  and 
again,  I  know  whence  I  come  and  whither  I  go  ; 
and  again,  I  am  the  way,  the  truth,  and  the  life ; 
and  again,  I,  if  I  be  lifted  up  from  the  earth,  will 
draw  all  men  unto  me.1 

But  this  expression  of  personality  is  never  apart 
from  its  relations.  If  he  treads  these  heights  of 
personality  with  perfect  repose,  he  is  not  alone  on 
them,  nor  lifted  beyond  the  world.  His  words 
are,  /  am  in  the  Father,  and  the  Father  in  me  ; 
and  again,  I  and  the  Father  are  one.  And  this 
realization  of  personality  is  not  a  relation  for 
himself  alone,  but  for  humanity ;  it  is  being  for 

1  "  Through  this  strait  gate  of  absolute  trust  in  the  Eternal  God 
as  a  Father,  when  the  evidence  of  events,  the  denials  of  men,  the 
anguish  of  his  spirit,  contradicted  the  faith  that  he  was  a  Son  at 
all,  —  through  this  strait  gate  of  absolute  denial  of  his  right  to  have 
anything  and  be  anything  apart  from  his  Father  he  passed. 

"  Through  this  strait  gate  he  was  moving  on  to  that  life  which  he 
had  with  the  Father  before  the  worlds  were.  But  in  another  sense 
he  was  moving  to  a  new  life,  the  life  of  manhood,  which  he  had 
redeemed  and  reconciled.  If  the  love  of  God  could  have  been  con- 
tent with  anything  less  than  this  redemption  and  reconciliation, 
with  anything  less  than  the  imparting  to  men  the  full  rights  and 
condition  of  Sons  of  God,  the  Word  would  not  have  been  made 
flesh;  the  life  on  earth  which  the  evangelists  set  forth  to  us  would 
not  have  been  lived."  (Maurice,  Sermons,  vol.  ii.  p.  292.) 


THE  ADVENT.  117 

another,  in  the  fulfillment  of  being  for  self.  That 
which  he  affirms  of  himself  he  affirms  of  those 
with  him:  as  thou,  Father,  art  in  me,  and  I  in 
Thee,  that  they  may  be  one  in  us.1  The  perfect 
revelation  of  God  must  be  in  personality,  for  in 
self-determination,  in  truth  to  self,  there  is  being 
for  another,  and  in  this  relation,  being  for  self, 
the  perfect  self-realization,  which  is  the  realization 
of  the  ethical  life. 

The  relation  of  the  Christ  to  God,  of  the  Son 
to  the  Father,  is  perfect.  This  relation  to  God 
becomes  then,  in  humanity,  the  foundation  and 
condition  of  the  realization  of  the  human  person- 
ality, which  has  its  strength  in  its  relation  to  God. 
It  is  not  subject  to  accident,  nor  determined  by 
the  limitations  of  the  finite,  but  recognizes  its  ex- 
istence in  the  economy  of  an  infinite  wisdom  and 
love.  It  is  in  man  the  life  of  the  spirit,  the  life 
of  freedom,  which  subsists  in  relations  with  God. 

Thus,  from  the  communion  in  human  relations 
with  the  higher  personality,  there  is  strength 

1  "  He  is  one  who,  because  he  claims  to  be  the  Son  of  God,  abjures 
all  separate  authority.  He  is  one  with  the  Father;  therefore  he 
can  do  nothing  of  himself.  He  will  not  make  the  stones  bread  ; 
that  would  be  a  denial  of  his  Sonship.  His  countenance  becomes 
changed,  for  the  Father's  brightness  shines  through  it.  The  agony 
of  the  cross  is  the  sense  of  separation  from  the  Father.  Into  the 
Father's  hands  he  commends  his  spirit.  The  Magdalene  is  to  tell 
his  disciples  that  he  is  about  to  ascend  to  his  Father  and  their 
Father,  to  his  God  and  their  God."  (Maurice,  Sermons,  vol.  ii. 
p.  290.) 


118    THE  REVELATION  OF  GOD  IN  CHRIST. 

and  freedom.  Thus,  for  a  family  and  for  a  na- 
tion, the  very  names  of  those  who  are  greatest, 
as  Abraham  and  Isaac  and  Jacob,  as  Washington 
and  Jackson  and  Lincoln,  even  in  their  human 
associations,  become  a  source  of  strength  and  free- 
dom. Their  character  becomes  a  power  in  the 
life  of  a  people.  But  we  are  conscious  how  im- 
perfect the  attainment  was  and  is  here  and  now ; 
and  how  often,  in  relation  with  men  of  the  highest 
attainment,  this  freedom  is  imperfectly  realized; 
and  how  with  the  highest  it  may  be  impaired; 
but  it  is  not  so  with  the  relation  of  men  with  the 
Christ  and  in  God. 

This  must  be  the  very  type  of  personality,  as 
the  one  and  the  universal,  that  is  perfect  in  the 
consciousness  of  its  own  self-de termination  and 
freedom,  and  perfect  in  the  consciousness  of  its 
relation  to  God.  The  beginnings  of  life  are  in 
these  relations ;  S.  Paul  says,  your  life  is  hid  with 
Christ  in  God. 

The  life  of  Jesus  in  its  individual  characteris- 
tics, and  in  its  situation  on  this  earth,  was  a  life 
subject  to  finite  conditions  and  relations.  In  these 
limitations,  it  was  a  life  in  the  secular  process  of 
the  history  of  the  world.  It  is  the  subject  of 
biography. 

This  name,  this  domestic  and  tribal  lineage,  the 
scene  and  sphere  of  circumstance,  the  time  and 
place,  are  of  a  transient  character,  and  have  the 


THE  ADVENT.  119 

interest  only  of  that  which  is  transient.  The 
occupation  and  the  age  are  the  accident  of  life. 

The  date  of  his  birth,  the  site  of  the  town  in 
which  he  was  born,  of  the  tavern  in  which  he  was 
a  guest,  of  the  chamber  in  which  he  partook  of 
the  supper  with  his  disciples,  of  the  sepulchre  in 
which  he  was  laid,  may  be  no  more  known.  It  is 
still  only  some  human  association  that  turns  to 
them,  and  is  not  to  be  satisfied. 

The  fact  which  is  apparent  through  them  is 
that  he  became  man,  that  he  was  born  into  the 
life  of  men.  S.  John  says,  the  Word  was  made 
fleshy  and  dwelt  among  us.  That  he  was  born  in 
destitute  circumstance,  that  he  died  in  the  form 
of  death  provided  by  an  imperial  power  for  the 
offense  of  a  slave,  that  his  birth  was  in  a  house 
which  he  or  his  fathers  did  not  own,  that  he 
was  laid  in  a  sepulchre  which  he  or  his  fathers 
did  not  own,  are  the  incidents  which  have  been 
recorded  in  his  life.  This  life  was  the  com- 
mon life  of  all  men.  His  relations  were  with  a 
common  humanity.  There  was  the  realization 
of  the  historic  life  of  man  on  this  earth.  S.  Paul 
says,  He  took  upon  him  the  form  of  a  servant,  and 
was  made  in  the  likeness  of  men:  and  being  found 
in  fashion  as  a  man,  he  humbled  himself  and  be- 
came obedient  unto  death,  even  the  death  of  the 
cross. 

There  is  no  incident  to  isolate  him  from  the 
common  life  of  men,  and  no  circumstance  which 


120     THE  REVELATION  OF  GOD  IN  CHRIST. 

has  the  character  of  an  external  distinction. 
There  is  no  event  to  which  there  can  attach  any 
tradition  of  external  power  or  pomp.  It  is  in  no 
formal  relation  and  circumstance  that  he  appears 
in  the  human  offices  of  a  Prophet  and  Priest  and 
King.  There  is  for  him  no  graduation,  no  ordi- 
nation, no  coronation,  of  this  earth.  It  is  the 
manifestation  of  the  power  of  a  King,  but  not  one 
who  would  establish  a  dominion  over  men ;  of  a 
Prophet,  but  not  one  who  would  impose  upon 
human  thought  the  systems  of  a  school ;  of  a 
Priest,  but  the  sacrifice  he  offers  is  no  fruit  of  time, 
and  he  stands  before  no  altar  that  is  built  by  men. 
He  calls  no  man  to  a  temple  that  shall  be  de- 
stroyed. The  Christ  says,  destroy  this  temple,  and 
in  three  days  I  will  raise  it  up  ;  but  he  spake  of 
the  temple  of  his  body.  His  own  person  was  the 
temple  in  which  God  would  meet  man,  and  man 
might  meet  God. 

There  is  thus  no  trace  in  the  character  of  Jesns 
that  is  special  and  exclusive  in  its  individual  and 
tribal  qualities.  The  distinction  based  on  a  line  of 
physical  descent,  as  a  child  of  the  family  of  Abra- 
ham, or  of  the  tribe  of  Judah,  is  always  set  aside. 
There  was  not  in  his  life,  or  in  the  fulfillment  of 
his  work  on  the  earth,  that  which  brought  him 
into  identity  in  its  separate  character  with  a  cer- 
tain race  or  country.  The  life  which  he  lived 
was  the  universal  life. 


PEOPHET,  PRIEST,  AND  KING.  121 

This  Jesus  of  Nazareth  is  the  Christ  of  history. 

This  Jesus  is  the  Christ  of  the  Church,  the 
Christ  of  man,  who,  being  before  the  world  was, 
and  coming  into  the  world,  came  unto  his  own. 

There  has  often  been  a  contrast  drawn  between 
Jesus  of  Nazareth  and  the  Christ  of  history.  The 
one,  for  instance,  has  been  regarded  as  an  actual 
person,  and  the  other  as  an  abstract  and  unreal- 
ized ideal.  The  one  has  been  represented  as  a 
life  of  definite  circumstance,  and  the  other  as  in- 
definite and  the  construction  of  the  imagination. 

But  the  Jesus  of  Nazareth  is  the  Christ  of  his- 
tory. There  is  not  only  a  perfect  identity,  but 
the  character,  the  life  of  Jesus,  has,  in  the  Christ, 
its  perfect  realization.  The  one  is  involved  in  the 
other.  This  actual  life,  this  human  life  under  hu- 
man conditions,  is  presumed  in  the  Christ  of  his- 
tory ;  and  so  also  this  fulfilled  life,  which  is  yet 
always  in  its  fulfillment,  this  eternal  life  which  is 
given  unto  men,  is  predicated  in  the  actual  life  of 
Tesus  of  Nazareth. 

This  Jesus  the  Christ  does  not  continue  in  the 
external  relation  with  men,  which  denotes  an  indi- 
-idual  life,  subject  to  the  conditions  of  time  and 
space  and  their  limitations.  The  close  of  that 
earthly  life,  through  death,  was  the  coming  of  the 
Spirit ;  and  he  who  is  one  with  the  Spirit  and  one 
with  humanity,  enters  through  the  Spirit  into  the 
life  of  humanity. 

The  Christ  of  history  is  the  coming  and  mani- 


122     THE  KEVELATION  OF  GOD  IN  CHRIST. 

festation  of  the  Son  of  man.  There  is  the  reali- 
zation of  his  oneness  with  humanity  and  in  his 
power,  the  power  of  the  Son  of  man,  who  is  seated 
at  the  right  hand  of  God.  The  Christ  of  history 
in  the  historic  life,  the  real  life  of  humanity,  is 
therefore  invested  with  power,  and  is  glorified. 

This  Jesus  the  Christ  is  one  with  the  Father  in 
that  relation  which  he  had  with  the  Father  before 
the  world  was,  and  one  with  the  Spirit,  who  pro- 
ceeds from  the  Father  and  the  Son. 

This  Jesus  the  Christ  is  one  in  whom  the  heav- 
ens are  opened  and  the  vision  is  fulfilled  ;  hereafter 
shall  ye  see  heaven  open,  and  the  angels  of  God 
ascending  and  descending  upon  the  Son  of  man. 
In  him  is  the  eternal  life.  It  is  a  continuous  life, 
and  in  it  death  is  overcome.  The  earthly  life 
cannot  be  separated  from  the  heavenly,  nor  the 
humiliation  from  the  glorification ;  the  conflict  is 
one  with  us  and  the  victory,  the  passion  and  the 
peace  of  God. 

There  are  some  recent  phases  of  thought  which 
ask  an  apologetic  notice. 

It  is  said  that  this  Jesus  of  Nazareth  came, 
through  the  influence  of  the  tendencies  of  his 
times,  and  through  reflection,  to  apprehend  the 
idea  of  the  Christ  which  was  prevalent  as  some 
abstraction  in  the  age,  and  then  assumed  the  char- 
acter to  himself,  and  then,  by  the  force  of  circum- 
stances, was  compelled  to  sustain  the  position 


THE  INCARNATION.  123 

which  he  had  assumed.  It  is  said  that  to  this  was 
added  the  impulse  of  religion  and  the  devotion 
of  a  religious  nature. 

But  there  was  not  thus  the  apprehension  of 
some  abstract  idea,  and  the  effort  to  conform  to  it ; 
nor  was  personality  so  empty  and  freedom  so  im- 
paired as  such  subjection  to  external  circumstance 
would  involve ;  nor  is  the  relation  which  he  man- 
ifested to  the  will  of  God,  and  his  fulfillment  of  it, 
to  be  construed  as  a  subjection  to  the  transient 
circumstance  of  an  earthly  condition.  There  was 
prevalent  the  hope  and  faith  often  confused,  but 
never  wholly  lost,  which  was  expressed  by  the 
woman  of  Samaria  and  in  the  confession  of  S. 
Peter,  that  the  Christ  was  to  come ;  but  that  di- 
vine apprehension  and  realization  which  was  in 
his  life  was  rejected  utterly  in  his  own  generation, 
and  has  been  but  slowly  and  imperfectly  appre- 
hended through  the  succeeding  centuries.  It  was 
not  only  rejected  in  his  generation,  but  alone,  and 
yet  not  alone,  he  passed  through  death. 

It  is  not,  again,  that  he  in  an  imperfect  way  as- 
sumed the  character,  and  that  his  friends  together 
worked  it  out  in  an  imaginative  reconstruction. 
The  mythical  element,  if  it  be  allowed  in  the  liter- 
ature of  the  subject,  consists  only  with  the  traces 
of  certain  circumstances,  and  does  not  in  the  main 
concern  the  actual,  and  still  less  the  ethical,  devel- 
opment. And  there  is  no  note  of  imaginative 
Dower,  and  no  representation  of  an  abstract  ideal 


124  THE   REVELATION   OF   GOD  IN  CHRIST. 

such  as  occupies  the  representative  imagination. 
It  is  not,  again,  that  in  that  age,  or  in  the  succeed- 
ing ages,  the  historical  character  is  clothed  with 
certain  qualities  by  the  representative  imagina- 
tion, and  thus,  apart  from  the  real,  is  idealized  and 
lifted  to  its  exaltation  through  the  abstract  imagi- 
nation.1 

It  is  not  the  expression  of  an  individual  ideal,  but 
it  is  the  manifestation  of  a  life  and  in  relations, 
and  it  has  not  its  end  as  an  individual  ideal  in  be- 
ing by  self.  The  Christ  says,  /  came  to  do  the  will 
of  Mm  that  sent  me  ;  and  again,  /  can  do  nothing 
alone  ;  and  again,  I  have  finished  the  work  that 
thou  gavest  me  to  do.  It  does  not  borrow  its  ex- 
altation from  an  abstract  ideal,  but  its  exaltation 
is  in  its  own  perfect  realization.  It  is  beyond  the 
power  of  the  representative  imagination,  and  that 
does  not  contribute  an  element  to  it.  It  is  not  the 
incorporation  of  an  individual  ideal,  and  that 
would  avoid  the  element  which  is  constant  in  it 
in  its  relation  to  God  and  to  humanity.  And  this 
abstraction  of  the  imagination  which  this  theory 
projects  is  not  the  life  of  the  Spirit. 

It   is   said   that   this   is  a  life   which  did   not 

1  "  If  the  Christ  of  the  church  is  an  ideal  being,  it  was  Jesus  who 
made  the  ideal.  The  ideal  in  him  is  simply  the  result  of  that  disen- 
gagement from  the  earthly  vestiture  which  death  and  distance  work 
in  all  who  live  in  history.  A  perfect  portrait  presents  the  charac- 
teristic mode,  not  the  temporary  accidents,  the  fallings-off,  the  van* 
ishings,  of  the  person  portrayed."  (Hedge,  Ways  of  the  Spirit 
p.  338.) 


THE  INCARNATION.  125 

recognize  a  system  of  economy,  and  this  is  as- 
sumed to  be  the  formal  system  of  a  recent  school ; 
and  again  that  it  did  not  contribute  to  the  critical 
culture  of  art.  But,  slightly  to  notice  this,  this 
was  not  its  aim  or  end.  It  was  to  set  forth  that 
which  is  at  the  foundation  of  every  human  life. 
And  in  the  life  of  the  spirit  there  is  no  element  of 
grace  or  truth  that  art  can  mould  or  thought 
inform,  and  no  substantial  attainment  of  human- 
ity in  individual  or  social  economy,  in  which  the 
power  of  this  life  may  not  be  manifest. 

There  has  been  a  recent  controversy  as  to  the 
ethical  motive  of  the  Christ ;  for  instance,  was  it 
faithfulness  to  an  ideal ;  or  conformity  to  a  princi- 
ple of  righteousness ;  or  enthusiasm  for  humanity  ? 
There  was  the  realization  of  the  truth ;  and  the 
recognition  of  righteousness ;  and  love  for  man ; 
but  there  was  not  a  separate  motive  thus  alone  or 
primarily,  and  an  ethical  motive  was  not  thus  ex- 
ternal to  him.  There  was  the  manifestation  of  a 
relation  to  humanity  that  was  deeper  than  any 
external  motive,  as  an  enthusiasm  for  humanity. 
The  motive  was  in  the  will  and  love  that  was  be- 
fore the  world  was.  He  came  to  manifest  himself 
to  the  world.  He  came  to  fulfill  himself  in  the 
world. 

The  coming  of  the  Son  of  God,  the  incarnation, 
was  not  simply  physical,  a  manifestation  of  exter- 


126     THE  REVELATION  OF  GOD  IN  CHRIST. 

nal  power,  as  that  which  has  been  so  often  assumed 
in  history.1  S.  John  says,  the  Word  was  made 
flesh,  and  dwelt  among  us,  full  of  grace  and  truth. 
It  was  ethical  and  organic ;  and  it  was  not  ethical 
in  a  formal  way,  but  in  the  realization  of  person- 
ality ;  and  it  was  not  simply  in  an  individual  way, 
but  in  the  life  that  was  given  for  man,  and  became 
the  life  of  humanity.2 

There  is  a  tendency  to  recognize  the  coming  of 
the  Christ  simply  in  its  external  manifestation,  in 
history,  and  to  look  to  his  coming  again  in  a  for- 
mal external  manifestation.  This  is  unspiritual. 
It  occupies  the  mind  with  an  incident  of  history, 
and  in  a  detached  way.  It  tends  to  dwell  upon 
the  incident  and  circumstance  of  the  life  of  Jesus. 

1  "  The  Christ  says,  run   not  hither  and  thither  ;  the  kingdom  of 
God   is  within  you.     Many  others  were  honored  as  divine  messen- 
gers or  as  divinities.      For    instance,  statues  were  erected    among 
the  Greeks  to   Demetrius  Poliorcites  as  to  a  god,  and  the  Roman 
emperors  were  honored  as  gods.     So  there  have  been  incarnations 
conceived,  as  Buddha,  Hercules.     But  the  history  of  Christ  is  his- 
tory for  the  community,  and  has  the  witness  of  the    spirit   in  the 
life  of  faith.     Thus   it   is    maintained  in  a  spiritual  way,  and  not 
by  external  power."       (Hegel,  Philosophic   der   Religion,  vol.    ii. 
p,  321.) 

2  "  This  notion  that  the  divine  is  only  the  apotheosis  of  the  hu- 
man, not  its  ground,  —  that  a  man  is  to  become  a  god  by  thinking 
himself  one,  —  this  philosophical  reproduction  of  all  that  has  been 
most  corrupt,  most  superstitious,  in  the  world's  history,  is  at  once 
the  natural  reaction  against  a  theology  which  takes  account  only  of 
man's  depravity,  and  the  natural  deduction  from  a  theology  which 
begins  from  man  instead  of  from  God."     (Maurice,  Sermons,  vol.  i 
p.  345.) 


THE  INCARNATION.  127 

It  is  regressive,  and  does  not  apprehend  his  real 
presence,  nor  his  life  and  coming  in  the  world. 
S.  Paul  says,  though  I  have  known  Christ  after  the 
flesh,  henceforth  know  I  him  no  more. 

The  Christ  in  his  humanity  and  in  his  relation 
to  humanity  is  manifested  as  the  head  of  the 
human  race,  in  its  real  and  eternal  life.1  We  are 
members  one  of  another,  but  we  are  related  in 
him  ;  and  this  is  the  ground,  and  thence  is  the  man- 
ifestation of  the  ethical  life  and  relations  of  hu- 
manity. The  relation  of  humanity  is  not  simply 
a  physical  relation,  and  through  lines  of  physical 
descent.2  There  is  a  physical  relation,  and  there 

1  This  is  the  truth  that  underlies  one  of  the  most  profound  and 
affecting  doctrines  of   philosophy,  the  doctrine  of  reminiscence  in 
Plato.     It  is  the  consciousness,  however  dimly  apprehended,  that 
the  soul  has  of  its  origin  and  relations.     This  has  been  made  the 
subject  of  one  of   the  most  impressive  works  of  this  age,  the  Ode 
on  the  Intimations  of  Immortality  of  Wordsworth. 

"  Christ  was  the  new  head  of  the  human  nature.  Christ  is  the 
second  Adam,  the  real  unfigurate  head  of  the  human  body.  He 
suffered  death  as  a  partaker  of  that  life  which  was  under  the  law 
of  death,  and  rose  again  with  a  new  life.  In  the  person  of  Christ 
risen,  then,  we  see  God  in  fellowship  with  our  nature,  —  even  with 
us."  (Erskine,  Memoirs,  p.  115.) 

2  ' '  Men  found  continually  that  the  further  they  went  down  into 
themselves    the  more    there  was   of   corruption   and   darkness  and 
evil,  till    at    last    they  supposed    the  very  root  of  their  being  was 
nothing  else.      S.  Paul  had  gone  down  into  these  depths;  he  had 
found  this  rottenness;  in  himself  he  says  he  found  only  that.     But 
he  discovered  that  there  was  a  root,   below   himself,  a  true  divine 
root,  for  himself  and  every  man.     He  found  that  each  man,  when 
he  tries  to  contemplate  himself  apart  from  Christ,  is  that  evil  crea- 
ture in  which  no  good  dwells.     But  no  man,  so  he  teaches,  has  a 


128     THE  REVELATION  OF  GOD  IN  CHRIST. 

is  also  a  spiritual  relation.  Through  the  physical 
condition  there  is  the  evidence  that  there  is  no 
ground  for  the  monistic  representation  of  man. 
The  ethical  relation  of  man  is  that  which  gives  to 
social  law  and  the  development  of  history  an 
element  that  is  universal.  The  Christ  is  revealed 
as  the  true  and  eternal  head  of  the  human  race. 
It  is  the  life  of  the  Spirit ;  for  that  which  is  made  is 
physical  and  determined  through  forms  and  with 
component  elements,  but  that  which  is  spiritual  is 
given  to  men ;  it  is,  in  the  profound  words,  begot- 
ten, not  made.  S.  Paul  says,  the  first  man  is  oj 
the  earth,  earthy  :  the  second  man  is  the  Lord  from 
heaven:  and  as  we  have  borne  the  image  of  the 
earthy,  we  shall  also  bear  the  image  of  the  heav- 
enly. The  Christ  is  not  the  prefigurate,  but  the 
real,  head  of  humanity.  Thus,  in  history,  the  law 
which  he  has  given  becomes  increasingly  the  law 
of  the  life  of  humanity,  and  the  expression  of  its  re- 
lations. S.  Paul  says,  I  would  have  you  know  that 
the  head  of  every  man  is  Christ.  This  is  the  life 
which  is  brought  to  light ;  in  him  was  life  ;  and  the 
life  was  the  light  of  men. 

The  Trinity  denotes,  as  a  term,  the  revelation  of 
God  in  himself,  and  in  his  relation  to  humanity. 
There  is  thus  in  the  Trinity  the  assertion  of  the 

right  to  contemplate  himself   apart    from  Christ;  God  does  not  so 
contemplate  him.      He  was  formed   at    first  in  the  Divine  Word 
in   him  he   lives   and   has   his  being    still    '       (Maurice,   Serntcns 
vol.  i.  p.  108.) 


THE  TRINITY  129 

unity  of  God ;  but  it  is  not  an  abstract  unity,  a 
unity  in  which  there  is  no  foundation  for  rela- 
tions. It  is  not  an  isolation. 

The  term  has  necessarily  the  suggestion  of 
formulas  and  systems,  and  with  the  profoundest 
significance  it  is  apart  from  and  alien  to  the  form 
of  expression  of  the  Scriptures  and  the  worship  of 
the  Church,  and  has  no  intimation  of  the  fullness 
that  is  in  the  words,  the  Father,  the  Son,  and  the 
Hily  Spirit}- 

It  contains  no  suggestion  of  the  words  of  the 
Christ;  of  those  of  whom  he  said,  as  thou  hast  sent 
me  into  the  world,  even  so  have  I  also  sent  them 
into  the  world.  Holy  Father,  keep  through  thine 
own  name  those  whom  thou  hast  given  me,  that 

1  This  term,  the  Trinity,  must  submit  to  the  defect  which  attaches 
to  nearly  all  terms  which  from  common  uses  are  brought  to  the  uses 
of  a  strict  metempiricism.  Its  defect  is  that  it  brings  out  the  mere 
quandary  of  the  practical  understanding,  the  numeration  as  in  an 
arithmetical  note  of  three  and  one.  But  this  is  not  to  be  regarded 
when  the  term  comes  to  be  considered  strictly  as  a  symbol.  These 
terms,  in  their  derivative  uses,  are  of  more  value  in  the  Greek  than 
in  the  Latin  schools.  The  reason  for  this  is  both  literal  and  histori- 
cal. Mr.  Maine  has  some  important  notes  on  the  use  of  these  terms 
in  the  Latin  schools.  {Ancient  Law,  p.  80.)  "  The  term  Trinity  is 
a  hieroglyph."  (Fisher,  Faith  and  Rationalism,  p.  55.)  Dr.  Fisher 
has  references  to  Dr.  Chalmers  and  Dr.  Newman,  in  illustration  of 
this  subject.  See  S.  Augustine,  De  Trinitate,  ii.  12. 

"  The  Council  of  Nicasa,  which  declared  the  union  of  God 
with  man,  is  one  of  the  most  important  assemblies  that  was  ever 
convened  on  this  earth;  it  dates  a  new  era  in  the  history  of  human 
thought.  God  in  actual  contact  with  man  —  God  in  man  and  man 
in  God  —  is  the  underlying  idea  of  the  Athanasian  dogma,  which 
asserts  that  the  Son  is  consubstantial  with  the  Father."  (Hedge; 
Ways  of  the  Spirit,  p.  352.) 


130  THE  REVELATION  OF  GOD  IN  CHRIST. 

they  may  be  one  as  we  are.  I  in  them  and  thou  in 
me,  that  they  may  be  made  perfect  in  one,  and  that 
the  world  may  know  that  thou  hast  sent  me,  and 
hast  loved  them  as  thou  hast  loved  me. 

In  the  Christ,  the  Son  of  God  who  becomes  the 
Son  of  man,  there  is  the  revelation  of  him  who  is 
one  with  the  Father,  who,  being  one  with  the 
Father,  became  one  with  man,  and  through  him 
humanity  is  brought  into  relation  with  God  ;  and 
there  is  the  manifestation  of  the  Father  with  the 
Son,  and  there  is  the  coming  of  the  Spirit,  that 
the  life  of  humanity  becomes  henceforth  the  life 
of  the  Spirit. 

The  Christ  Jesus  of  Nazareth  says,  with  words 
that  could  have  no  justification  in  a  merely  physical 
process  of  history  ;  it  is  better  for  you  that  I  go 
away,  and  the  Spirit  of  truth  shall  come  ;  he  will 
guide  you  into  all  truth,  and  he  shall  not  speak 
of  himself,  but  whatsoever  he  shall  hear  that  shall 
he  speak  ;  he  shall  glorify  me,  for  he  shall  receive 
of  mine  and  show  it  unto  you. 

That  Jesus  is  the  Christ,  the  Son  of  God,  be- 
comes the  fact  of  history.  It  is  his  departure  that 
is  the  coming  of  the  Spirit  and  the  life  of  the 
Spirit :  the  life  which  has  not  its  precedent  nor  its 
tradition  in  a  physical  development ;  the  life  which 
is  not  merely  an  object  of  the  acquisition  of  the 
intellect ;  the  life  which  is  not  variable  nor  tran- 
sient, with  subjection  to  the  limitations  of  time 


THE  TKINITY.  131 

and  space,  which  does  not  return  to  mingle  with 
the  dust,  nor  yield  to  corruption ;  the  life  which  is 
eternal. 

The  relation  of  the  Christ  with  humanity  has  an 
organic  character,  which  does  not  exist  alone  in 
the  relations  of  an  external  history,  and  passes 
beyond  the  limitations  of  the  finite,  in  the  life  of 
the  spirit.  There  was  a  repose  and  a  knowledge 
of  things  to  come  that  was  not  of  this  earth  in 
the  words ;  it  is  better  for  you  that  I  go  away. 
The  voice  that  again  broke  the  silence  was  not  of 
this  earth ;  Zo,  /  am  with  you  alway,  even  unto 
the  end  of  the  world. 

This  going  away  was  his  coming  again  in  the 
realization  of  infinite  and  eternal  relations,  in  the 
life  of  the  spirit.  If  the  Christ  had  remained  con- 
tinuously on  the  earth,  it  would  have  been  neces- 
sarily in  an  external  relation,  a  relation  limited  by 
time  and  space.  It  is  the  fact  of  his  going  away, 
and  thenceforth  the  coming  of  the  Spirit,  hi  the 
real  life,  the  immortal  life,  of  men,  that  becomes 
the  evidence  of  the  divine  presence  and  the  divine 
character,  and  thence  transfers  the  evidence  to 
history.  It  is  here  that  the  skepticism  of  men  is 
to  meet  it.  It  will  not  be  found  by  running  to  and 
fro,  and  vainly  they  may  listen  to  voices  that  say 
lo  here  and  lo  there.  It  will  not  verify  itself  by 
external  pageants.  It  will  verify  itself  through 
the  life  of  the  Spirit  in  the  history  of  the  world ; 
and  as  the  skepticism  of  men  must  meet  it  there, 


132  THE  REVELATION  OF  GOD  IN  CHRIST. 

so  the  faith  of  men  shall  there  have  its  strength, 
and  thence  shall  come  the  sources  of  an  undying 
life.  He  says,  if  any  man  confess  me  before  men, 
him  will  I  also  confess  before  the  face  of  my 
Father  in  heaven}- 

That  Jesus  is  the  Christ,  the  Son  of  God,  has 
henceforth  the  evidence  of  the  Spirit. 

There  is  henceforth  the  life  of  the  spirit.  This 
is  the  life  that  now  is  and  is  to  come.  This  is  the 
life  of  truth  and  freedom ;  in  this  man  overcomes 
the  world ;  the  fruition  of  it  is  righteousness  and 
peace  and  joy. 

There  is  henceforth  the  conviction  of  the  world. 

There  is  henceforth  the  realization  of  the  king- 
dom of  heaven  on  the  earth. 

There  is  henceforth  the  redemptive  life  of  hu- 
manity. 

There  is  the  life  in  which  death  is  overcome,  — 
the  life  of  the  spirit. 

1  The  question  which  the  contemporaries  of  the  Christ  asked  has 
been  repeated  in  other  ages,  and  by  many  in  this  age,  "  What  sign 
showest  thou  unto  us  ?  "  The  most  significant  fact  in  that  age  for 
those  who  asked  this  question,  then,  was  the  destruction  of  the 
temple,  and  the  coming  with  the  new  testament  of  that  spirit 
which  dwelt  in  men.  S.  John  says,  the  Jews  said  unto  him,  What 
sign  showest  thou  unto  us  ?  Jesus  said  unto  them.  Destroy  this  temple, 
and  in  three  days  I  will  raise  it  up.  Then  said  the  Jews,  Forty  and 
six  years  was  this  temple  in  building,  and  wilt  thou  raise  it  up  in  three 
days  f  But  he  spake  of  the  temple  of  his  body. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

THE    CONVICTION   OF   THE   WOULD. 

THEKE  is  through  the  world  the  conviction  of 
sin,  of  righteousness,  and  of  judgment.  The  course 
of  the  sin  of  the  world  is  in  its  alienation  and 
separation  from  God,  and  consequent  variance  and 
strife.  This  condition,  which  appears  in  the  man- 
ifold forms  of  rebellion,  of  envy,  of  division,  of 
violence,  is  a  constant  fact  in  the  history  of  the 
world.  In  this  separation  from  God  is  the  want  of 
unity  and  reconciliation  and  peace.  In  this,  is 
the  source  of  those  false  theories  of  dualism  which 
always  involve  fatalism,  and  against  which  the 
spirit  of  man,  in  its  aim  toward  unity,  contends 
with  unconquerable  energies.  In  this,  man's  life 
becomes  one  with  nature  in  its  continuous  course, 
but  does  not  rise  above  it.  It  is  simply  an  animal 
existence.  It  is  one  with  nature  as  the  other  of 
God.  In  this,  there  is  no  freedom.  There  is  no 
recognition  of  the  ground  of  unity  and  reconcilia- 
tion, as  it  is  found  through  the  mediation  of  the 
spirit. 

Sin  is  the  alienation  of  man  from  God  and  from 
humanity,  through  the  assertion  of  the  law  of  self- 
ishness as  the  final  law  of  human  action.  S.  Paul 


134  THE  CONVICTION  OF  THE  WORLD. 

says,  sin  is  the  transgression  of  the  law.  It  is  a 
transgression  by  man  of  the  law  which  is  the  law 
of  his  own  being,  —  the  law  of  God  and  of  hu- 
manity. It  involves  a  variance  from  the  relations 
of  men  in  their  true  and  normal  development,  and 
from  the  moral  constitution  of  the  world,  and  con- 
sequent injury  and  consciousness  of  guilt.  Sin 
consists  in  following  ways  that  are  wrong,  as  in 
a  wrong  world,  and  in  rejecting  or  refusing  the 
recognition  of  a  law  or  life  of  righteousness. 
Through  it  the  will  is  unfree,1  and  is  brought  into 
subjection  to  that  which  is  external,  and  injury 
may  be  done  to  others  in  their  relations  in  life. 
In  sin  there  is  the  defect  and  the  defeat  of  per- 
sonality. It  is  a  malady  by  which  hurt  is  done 

1  "  From  the  internal  point  of  view  there  are  rudiments  and  sur- 
vivals in  the  mind  which  are  to  be  excluded  from  that  me,  whose 
free  action  tends  to  progress;  that  baneful  strife  which  lurketh  inborn 
in  us  is  the  foe  of  freedom  :  this  let  not  a  man  stir  up,  but  avoid  and 
flee"  (Clifford,  Lectures  and  Essays,  vol.  ii.  p.  250.)  This  is  pre- 
sented not  only  as  the  result  of  experience,  but  as  the  resultant  of 
the  knowledge  of  human  nature  derived  from  observation.  There 
can  be  in  one  way  no  more  clear  and  incisive  description  of  human 
sin.  The  phrase,  which  will  hold  its  place  on  historical  grounds,  as 
descriptive  of  those  forces  which  hinder  from  action  that  me,  is  the 
bondage  of  sin.  Whatever  may  be  our  theories,  the  science  of  the- 
ology asks  no  more  than  to  be  supplied  with  these  postulates ;  and  it 
may  hold  that  something  deeper,  yes,  diviner  in  that  me,  may  be 
traced  beneath  rudiments  and  survivals;  and  still  sin  is  alien  to  man, 
as  it  is  an  alienation  from  God,  and  that  baneful  strife  which  is  a  foe 
to  freedom,  which  man  is  to  avoid  and  flee,  is  another  conflict  than 
the  struggle  for  existence  on  this  earth,  and  out  of  it  is  that  freedom 
wrought,  which  is  fulfilled  in  a  life  that  does  not  have  its  consumma- 
tion in  death. 


OF  SIN.  135 

to  man,  and  is  the  disruption  of  the  normal  re- 
lations of  society.  The  true  development  of  man 
is  thwarted. 

Sin  is  involved  with  ignorance  in  a  world  of 
finite  conditions.  Sin  is  incident  to  this  imperfect 
condition  and  development,  in  which  man  may 
rise  above  the  mere  courses  of  an  animal  exist- 
ence, through  the  mediation  of  the  spirit,  and  evil 
may  be  overcome  through  conflict ;  and  this  pres- 
ent evil  world  is  brought  into  reconciliation  with 
God  through  the  spirit  ^  and  this  divided  world  is 
stayed  in  the  centre  of  its  unity  in  God ;  and 
peace  is  attained  in  the  recognition  and  the  fulfill- 
ment of  the  will  of  God. 

In  sin  there  is  the  isolation  of  the  individual ; 
self  is  an  object  of  action,  not  in  truth  for  self,  — 
for  in  truth  for  self,  there  is  the  realization  and 
recognition  of  a  relation  to  God  and  to  humanity, 
—  but  in  being  with  self,  the  mere  living  of  a 
man  unto  himself,  the  assertion  of  a  law  of  sel- 
fishness. Thus  the  words  are  verified,  — 

"  This  above  all,  to  thine  own  self  be  true; 
And  it  must  follow  as  the  night  the  day, 
Thou  canst  not  then  be  false  to  any  man." 

There  is  in  the  sequence  of  the  physical  process 
the  isolation  that  is  death.  In  death  there  is  iso- 
lation, and  an  extinction  of  being  in  the  relations 
of  life,  and  an  effacement  of  structural  forms  in 
which  these  relations  had  their  continuance  in 
the  process  of  the  physical  world.  S.  Paul  says, 
the  sting  of  death  is  sin. 


136  THE  CONVICTION  OF  THE   WORLD. 

It  is  this  separation  in  death  against  which  the 
spirit  in  man  protests,  and  this  isolation  of  death 
from  which  the  heart  of  man  shrinks,  with  forebod- 
ings of  dread  and  gloom.  There  is  in  death  also 
the  apparent  limitation  of  man  to  the  physical 
process  of  the  world,  and  entire  subjection  to  that 
process.1  It  is  through  disease  and  death  in  the 
physical  process  that  there  is  the  prostration  of 
man.  The  science  of  man  recognizes  these  facts, 
which  appear  in  forms  of  disease  and  death,  and 
as  involving  not  merely  deflection  from  the  type, 
but  in  the  individual  the  extinction  of  the  type  : 
it  is  not  simply  a  replacement  in  the  evolution 
of  forms,  but  it  is  displacement.  The  inference 
from  the  physical  process  in  its  limitations  is  that 
disease,  with  its  pain  and  anguish,  is  to  be  appre- 
hended as  normal.  Man  can  ascertain,  in  the 
widest  range  of  observation,  no  period  in  which 
disease,  with  pain  and  anguish,  has  not  existed 
through  identical  forms  of  life,  and,  inferentially, 
none  in  which  it  will  not  exist.  He  can  indicate 
no  period  in  which  disease,  with  pain  and  anguish 
and  death,  will  disappear,  and  no  type  of  physical 
organization  with  which  it  will  disappear.  And 

1  It  is  true,  in  the  profound  words  of  Spinoza,  that  the  free  man 
thinks  of  nothing  less  than  of  death,  —  homo  liber  de  nulla  re  minus 
quam  de  morte  cogitat ;  but  this  is  true  because  freedom  has  an  in- 
finite quality,  and  is  not  measured  in  the  limitations  of  the  finite; 
and  in  freedom  man  is  raised  above  the  mere  limitations  of  the 
finite.  But  the  school  of  physical  science  does  not  know  this,  and 
cannot  admit  this,  without  the  rejection  of  its  own  assumptions, 
The  facts  concerning  death  are  within  the  range  of  its  observation. 


OF  SIN.  137 

this  evolution  may  have  shortly  or  remotely  a 
devolution,  —  this  gradation  may  become  a  degra- 
dation. 

There  is  in  sin  the  subjection  of  man,  as  there  is 
subjection  in  the  physical  process  to  death.  The 
spirit  of  man  recognizes  the  fact  that  sin  is  priva- 
tive and  positive,  but  it  is  not  positive  in  the 
sense  of  affirmation  of  being ;  it  is  external  and 
spiritual,  but  it  is  not  spiritual  in  the  sense  of  the 
recognition  or  realization  of  life.  Sin  is  the  bond- 
age, the  slavery  of  men.  The  freedom  of  man 
fails  of  its  realization,  and  man  becomes  the  slave 
of  sin. 

Sin  is  common,  and  is  not  restricted  to  a  certain 
individual  or  a  tribe ;  it  attaches  to  the  race ;  it 
refers  to  each  individual,  to  each  family  and  na- 
tion, and  through  it  their  strength  and  freedom 
are  impaired.  Through  sin  the  life  of  each  is  de- 
flected from  its  real  end,  and  perverted  from  that 
consistence  which  is  in  truth  to  self ;  and  its  action, 
when  its  self-determination,  that  is,  its  freedom,  is 
gone,  becomes  wayward  and  weak,  as  of  one  that 
is  lost. 

The  fact  of  human  sin  is  recognized  by  the  con- 
science  and  the  consciousness  of  men  and  nations. 
It  has  its  evidence  in  their  history.  There  has 
been  no  greatness 'in  men  or  in  nations,  in  Greece 
or  in  Borne,  that  achieved  a  complete  exemption 
from  this  consciousness.  It  is  attested  in  the  lit- 
erature of  the  world,  and  most  clearly  in  its  high- 


138  THE  CONVICTION  OF  THE  WORLD. 

est  forms,  as  in  the  Odyssey  of  Homer,  the  -ZEneid 
of  Vergil,  in  ^Eschylus  and  Shakespeare.1 

And  when  once  the  conscience  and  the  con- 
sciousness of  men  has  awakened  to  the  sense  of 
sin,  with  discord  and  death,  there  comes  for  it  no 
obliteration.  There  is  found  in  the  changes  of 
place  and  time  no  river  of  oblivion.  When  once 
it  has  been  aroused,  — 

"  Nor  poppy,  nor  mandragora, 
Nor  all  the  drowsy  syrups  of  the  world, 
Shall  ever  medicine  thee  to  that  sweet  sleep 
Which  thou  owedst  yesterday." 

And  as  there  is  here  no  power  that  can  bring  to 
the  conscience  the  effacement  of  sin,  so  there  is  in 
the  physical  process  no  power  to  overcome  and 
destroy  death.  Nature  says,  It  is  not  in  me  ;  she 
brings  forth,  in  the  same  indifference,  life  and 
death;  she  weaves  of  the  same  texture  the  wed- 
ding garment  and  the  shroud.  And  natural  soci- 
ety says,  It  is  not  in  me ;  she  has  obtained  the 
occupancy  of  no  land  where,  through  avarice  and 

1  "  Poor  soul,  the  centre  of  my  sinful  earth, 

Fool'd  by  those  rebel  powers  that  thee  array, 

Why  dost  thou  pine  within,  and  suffer  dearth, 

Painting  thy  outward  walls  so  costly  gay  ? 

Win'  so  large  cost,  having  so  short  a  lease, 

Dost  thou  upon  thy  fading  mansion  spend? 

Shall  worms,  inheritors  of  this  excess, 

Eat  up  thy  charge?   is  this  thy  body's  end? 

Then,  soul,  live  thou  upon  thy  servant's  loss, 

And  let  that  pine  to  aggravate  thy  store; 

Buy  terms  divine  in  selling  hours  of  dross; 

Within  be  fed,  without  be  rich  no  more : 

So  shult  thou  feed  on  death,  that  feeds  on  men, 

And  death  once  dead,  there  's  no  more  dying  then." 

(Shakespeare,  Sonnets,  cxlvi.) 


OF  SIN.  139 

violence,  she  has  not  consumed  the  lives  of  her 
children ;  she  has  the  records  of  no  age  that  is  ex- 
empt from  the  follies  and  crimes  and  wars  of  men. 

The  fact  of  sin  is  recognized,  by  the  struggle  for 
survival  in  the  conditions  of  life ;  by  the  variance 
from  the  ideal  in  the  secular  succession  of  things 
in  men  and  nations ;  by  the  civil  procedure  and 
institutions  of  society ;  by  the  language  of  men, 
which  may  be  held  as  representative,  not  of  its 
lower,  but  of  its  common  condition.  That  in  lan- 
guage there  is  retrospectively  a  discovery  of  man 
to  himself,  and  that  this  civil  procedure  is  in  the 
institution  of  a  moral  order  is  simply  the  evidence 
of  tendencies  and  forces  that  are  brought  to  act 
in  conflict  with  evil. 

Sin  is  the  transgression  of  the  law,  the  law  of 
being,  in  which  one  wrongeth  his  own  life.  It 
is  followed  by  evil.  This  is  indicated  in  the  civil 
order  of  society,  which  has  not  alone  a  positive, 
but  a  substantial  ethical  ground.  Crime  is  pun- 
ished. This  punishment  is  the  manifestation  of 
the  crime.  This  illustrates  the  conviction  which 
increasingly  follows  sin. 

Sin  is  the  contradiction  of  life.  In  sin  man  is, 
himself,  in  contradiction  with  all  that  really  is. 
It  is  not  only  the  subversion  of  energy,  but  it  be- 
comes the  identification  with  the  unreal.  It  is  the 
movement  of  an  empty  masquerade.  The  actor 
says  in  that  awful  tragedy,  — 

**  I  'gin  to  be  aweary  o'  the  sun." 


140  THE  CONVICTION  OF  THE  WORLD. 

This,  in  human  experience,  is  the  unreality  of  sin, 
that,  in  the  gathering  night  yet  discerns  through 
the  baleful  shadows,  its  own  discord.  This  be- 
comes its  intolerable  burden  and  its  ceaseless  tor- 
ment ;  in  the  fable,  it  was  the  whip  of  scorpions. 

Sin  is  unreal ;  —  it  is  the  contradiction  of  life ; 
but  in  the  consciousness  of  its  contradiction  there 
is  the  evidence  of  a  deeper  unity,  in  which  it  may 
be  overcome,  and  of  the  ground  of  its  obliteration. 
There  may  be  a  root  of  righteousness  of  life  that 
is  deeper  than  the  root  of  evil.  Though  it  be  not 
our  discovery,  it  may  be  discovered  to  us.  The 
conviction  of  sin  may  come  with  the  conviction  of 
righteousness  and  with  the  discrimination  of  evil, 
in  the  judgment,  that  is,  the  coming  of  the  light. 

The  Christ  says  of  the  coming  of  the  Spirit, 
And  when  he  is  come  he  will  convince  the  world  of 
sin,  of  righteousness,  and  of  judgment :  of  sin,  be- 
cause they  believe  not  on  me  ;  of  righteousness,  be- 
cause I  go  to  my  Father,  and  ye  see  me  no  more  ; 
of  judgment,  because  the  prince  of  this  world  is 
judged. 

There  is  the  manifestation  of  God  in  the  ethical 
order  of  the  world.  There  is  the  manifestation  of 
the  will  in  the  assertion  of  law,  in  the  fulfillment 
of  righteousness,  and  in  the  realization  of  free- 
dom. 

The  ethical  process  of  the  world  is  in  the  de- 
velopment of  the  family  and  the  nation.  In  this 


OF  EIGHTEOUSNESS.  141 

there  is  the  maintenance  of  relations,  and  the  in- 
stitution of  rights  and  the  acknowledgment  of  du- 
ties in  which  freedom  is  realized.  Through  the 
conscious  life  of  men  and  of  nations  there  is  the 
recognition  and  the  realization  of  righteousness  and 
freedom. 

The  ethical  process  of  the  world  is  the  fulfill- 
ment of  the  life  of  humanity.  The  degradation 
of  man  is  overcome,  and  men  are  lifted  above  a 
brutal  condition,  with  its  ignorance  and  servility. 
It  raises  man  above  the  existence  which  is  merely 
animal,  the  situation  which  has  its  satisfaction 
through  the  acquisition  of  enough  for  its  animal 
desires. 

This  revelation  is  of  a  God  of  righteousness, 
who  will  establish  righteousness  on  the  earth. 
The  law  of  righteousness  is  to  have  its  vindication 
in  the  relations  of  men.  This  has  in  history  its 
constant  assertion.  It  is  borne  on  in  one  contin- 
uous strain,  with  voices  of  joy  that  proclaim  the 
assurance  of  deliverance,  as  in  the  exultant  an- 
them of  a  mighty  nation,  and  voices  that  are 
tremulous  with  the  burden  of  woe :  Righteousness 
exalteth  a  nation  ;  and  again,  in  the  way  of  right- 
eousness is  life;  as  the  whirlwind  passeth,  so  is  the 
wicked  no  more,  but  the  righteous  is  an  everlast- 
ing foundation.  The  same  ethical  expression  is 
in  the  opening  services  of  the  Church :  when  the 
loicked  man  turneth  aivay  from  his  wickedness  that 
he  hath  committed,  and  doeth  that  which  is  lawful 


142  THE  CONVICTION  OF  THE  WORLD. 

and  right,  he  shall  save  his  soul  alive.  The  very 
word  righteousness  is  a  constant  term  of  the  Old 
Testament,  0  ye  that  love  the  eternal,  see  that  ye 
hate  the  thing  that  is  evil !  to  him  that  ordereth  his 
conduct  right  shall  be  shown  the  salvation  of  God.1 
It  is  repeated  with  no  limit  in  its  universal  signifi- 
cance, all  flesh  shall  know  that  I  am  thy  Saviour 
and  thy  Redeemer.  It  is  blended  with  the  vision 
of  its  transcendent  hopes ;  this  is  the  name  where- 
by he  shall  be  called,  the  Lord  our  righteousness. 
The  highest  reward  is  for  him  that  loveth  right- 
eousness and  hateth  iniquity. 

The  assertion  and  recognition  of  righteousness 
is  in  and  through  the  conscience.  The  conscience 
is  not  alone  the  expression  of  an  external  and  for- 
mal law,  although  the  affirmation  of  the  con- 
science may  be  in  an  external  and  formal  law ; 
it  is  in  a  law  which  is  involved  in  the  being  and 
freedom  of  personality  —  I,  I  ought.2 

1  "  The  word  righteousness  is  the  master  word  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment.  Keep  judgment  and  do  righteousness  !  Cease  to  do  evil,  learn  to 
do  well     A  sentence  which  sums  up  the  New  Testament,  and  as- 
signs the  ground  on  which  the  Christian  church  stands,  is  this  :    Let 
every  one  that  nameth  the  name  of  Christ  depart  from  iniquity."  (Ar- 
nold, Literature  and  Dogma,  ch.  i.  2.) 

2  "He  who,  wearied  or  stricken  in  the  fight  with  the  powers  of 
darkness,  asks  himself  in  a  solitary  place,  'Is  it  all  for  nothing?  Shall 
we,  indeed,  be  overthrown'  '  he  does  find  something  which  may  jus- 
tify that  thought.     In  such  a  moment  of  utter  sincerity,  when  a  man 
has  bared  his  own  soul  before  the  immensities  and  eternities,  a  pres- 
ence in  which  his  own  poor  personality  is  shriveled  into  nothing- 
ness, arises  within  him,  and  says  as  plainly  as  words  can  say,  '  I  am 
with  thee,  and  I  am  greater  than  thou."     (Clifford,  Lectures  arm 


OF  RIGHTEOUSNESS.  143 

The  revelation  of  God  is  in  the  fulfillment  of 
righteousness  and  the  realization  of  freedom.  In 
righteousness  and  freedom  is  the  assertion  and 
realization  of  personality. 

The  conscience  of  man  presumes  the  being  of 
God ;  it  presumes  a  righteous  being.  There  can 
be  no  adequate  apprehension  of  conscience,  nor 
explanation  of  the  facts  of  conscience,  —  to  con- 
sist with  the  facts  given  in  the  human  conscious- 
ness, —  that  does  not  imply  the  being  of  God,  and 
his  relation  to  man. 

The  conclusions  of  conscience  are  not  simply 
the  result  of  certain  physical  processes  and  condi- 
tions, and  determined  by  the  application  through 
them  of  some  law  or  standard  of  convenience  or 
use. 

The  principle  of  right  or  of  righteousness  has 
not  its  origin  in  a  physical  process,  which  in  trans- 
mitted lines  of  descent  allows  no  real  freedom, 
and  is  determined  only  by  immediate  considera- 
tions of  advantage  or  disadvantage. 

It  has  not  its  origin  in  customs,  as  a  usage  which 
might  be  wholly  different  in  different  conditions, 
nor  requires  from  men  only  a  conformity  to  prev- 

Essays,  vol.  ii.  p.  242.)  It  may  not  concern  one  what  name,  of  many 
names,  is  given  to  this  presence,  if  it  be  not  a  mere  word  for  which 
there  :s  no  reality,  and  if  it  be  not  merely  identified  with  the  ephem- 
eral life  of  humanity;  if  it  be  a  presence  in  and  with  personality; 
and  if  the  personality  of  man  be  not  brought  to  nothingness,  but 
lifted  up,  from  among  the  things  which  pass  into  nothingness,  into 
strength  and  freedom. 


144  THE  CONVICTION  OF  THE  WOULD. 

alent  customs  as  those,  for  instance,  of  a  tribal  or 
racial  character. 

It  has  not  its  origin  in  a  simple  intuition,  for  it 
presumes  that  which  is  the  object  of  intuition ; 
and  while  there  may  be  a  certain  intuitive  appre- 
hension of  righteousness,  yet  it  is  more  often 
brought  to  the  knowledge  of  men  through  reflect- 
ive lines  of  thought. 

It  has  not  its  origin  in  considerations  of  utility, 
as  the  relative  advantage  or  disadvantage  of  cer- 
tain courses  of  action  as  tending  to  promote  an  in- 
dividual or  tribal  welfare. 

And  yet  there  is  a  truth  involved  in  each  of 
these  notions,  for  a  principle  of  righteousness  is 
recognized  in  that  custom,  which  men  with  the 
advance  of  a  civil  polity  respect,  as  a  ground  of 
customary  right  and  of  common  law ;  and  it  may 
be  apprehended  by  the  intuition  of  thought ;  and 
it  may  be  ascertained  through  experience  and  trial 
with  the  sequent  issues  of  good  and  evil  in  the 
process  of  society.1 

1  "  Marriage  was  an  institution  far  older  than  the  law.  It  was 
not  the  creation  of  the  law. 

"  The  morality  of  the  Pharisees  proceeded  upon  the  forgetf  ulness 
of  this  principle.  They  looked  upon  penal  laws  not  as  presuming 
obligations,  but  as  the  foundation  of  them."  (Maurice,  Sermons,  vol. 
ii.  p.  350.) 

Mi  Clifford  has  a  theory  of  morality:  "  This  theory  is  the  theory 
of  the  tribal  self,  or  the  partly  inherited  partly  acquired  sense  of 
what  the  good  of  your  clan  requires,  which  must  often  be  at  war  with 
what  your  own  individual  pleasure  seems  to  require, — the  conflict 
representing  the  emergence  of  conscience."  See  Lectures  and  Es- 
says, vol.  ii.  p.  113.  This  is  a  fact  in  human  nature,  which  any  theory 


OF  RIGHTEOUSNESS.  145 

The  principle  of  righteousness  is  absolute ;  it  is 
immutable  ;  it  is  universal. 

This  principle  is  involved  in  the  realization  of 
the  life  of  the  family  and  the  nation.  It  is  not 
within  their  option  to  determine  whether  it  shall 
or  shall  not  be.  It  had  not  its  origin  in  the  asser- 
tion of  any  individual  or  collection  of  individual 
men,  and  it  cannot  be  annulled  by  them.  It  is 
the  source  of  stability,  — 

"  The  most  ancient  heavens 
Through  thee,  are  fresh  and  strong." 

That  there  is  a  course  and  constitution  of  human 
nature,  that  there  is  an  ethical  process  involved  in 
the  relations  of  men,  that  righteousness  has  for 
its  consequence  life  and  freedom,  that  unright- 
eousness has  its  consequence  in  the  detriment  of 
life  and  subversion  of  freedom,  —  this  is  the  evi- 
dence of  the  presence  of  a  righteous  being  in  the 
ethical  process  of  the  world. 

of  the  evolution  or  education  of  the  world  does  not  affect.  But  is 
this  conflict  of  the  whole  and  the  individual,  or  of  the  tribal  self  and 
the  separate  self,  always  to  go  on;  and  if  in  the  sacrifice  of  the  in- 
dividual self  there  be  an  element  of  virtue,  may  there  not  be,  in  the 
old  words,  a  divine  or  eternal  law  or  ground  of  sacrifice,  deeper  than 
the  mere  contingent  conflict  of  one  man  and  a  group  of  men  ;  and  in 
this  process  of  virtue,  with  the  "  emergence  of  conscience,"  does  a 
man  become  a  mere  underling  or  is  there  a  higher  realization  of  the 
individual  self,  —  the  me,  —  as  through  this  process  it  rises  to  the 
universal,  and  is  there  thus  the  way  to  a  perfect  reconciliation?  This 
fact,  of  the  deepest  import,  has  its  perfect  vindication  and  justifica- 
tion in  the  Christian  ethics,  and  involves  elements  other  than  a  mere 
impulse,  toward  "  an  end  in  which  we  are  all  to  be  swept  away  in 
the  final  ruin  of  the  earth." 
10 


146  THE  CONVICTION  OF  THE  WORLD. 

There  is  a  revelation  in  righteousness  of  the 
being  of  God  to  the  world.  This  revelation  is  to 
and  through  the  conscience  and  the  consciousness 
of  men. 

This  is  not  an  abstract  righteousness,  nor  a  for- 
mal freedom.  There  is  in  personality  the  highest 
energy ;  the  assertion  of  that  energy  is  in  freedom. 

The  energy  which  works  in  freedom  is,  through 
conflict,  in  the  realization  of  personality.  But  this 
is  not,  as  in  the  struggle  for  existence  in  the  phys- 
ical process,  the  struggle  of  one  against  another, 
with  the  resultant  survival  of  one  by  another,  but 
the  struggle  where  each,  in  their  relations,  is  for 
another,  and  each  in  the  realization  of  righteous- 
ness and  freedom  is  for  all. 

This  righteousness  in  its  assertion  and  realiza- 
tion is  more  and  other  than  a  retributive  or  dis- 
tributive justice,  which  is  the  postulate  of  the 
schemes  of  a  formal  theology :  its  revelation  be- 
comes in  the  unity  of  the  ethical  process  and  life 
the  Consistence  of  truth  and  goodness  and  beauty, 
and  the  ground  of  faith  and  hope  and  love  in  hu- 
manity. It  does  not  allow  that  ethical  incongruity 
which  has  for  its  postulate  a  conflict  of  justice  and 
love,  that  requires  a  formal  and  external  recon- 
ciliation. 

The  perfect  manifestation  of  righteousness  is  in 
the  person  of  the  Christ.  The  law  of  righteous- 
ness is  not  abstract ;  —  it  is  manifested  in  the  real- 
ization of  personality,  and  in  the  life  and  relations 


OF  RIGHTEOUSNESS.  147 

of  men  in  the  world.  It  is  in  a  life  in  which  there 
is  the  consciousness  of  perfect  unity  with  God 
and  perfect  unity  with  man,  and  which  becomes 
in  itself  the  perfect  realization  of  the  truth. 

The  life  of  Jesus  the  Christ  was  not  simply  a 
sinless  life,  with  the  negative  quality,  that  it  was 
without  sin.  It  was  that,  but  it  was  of  a  positive 
ethical  quality.  It  was  not  alone  the  representa- 
tion, the  mere  bodying  forth  of  a  perfect  ethical 
character,  a  phenomena  of  excellence,  a  simular 
of  virtue,  but  it  was  the  manifestation  of  a  life  in 
the  realization  of  a  perfect  righteousness  in  per- 
fect unity  with  man.  It  was  a  life  that  was 
wrought  through  the  trial  of  earth,  in  the  real- 
ization of  righteousness.  It  was  a  real  conflict  and 
a  real  victory. 

In  the  life  of  the  Christ  there  was  the  fulfill- 
ment of  the  law.  The  Christ  says,  /  came  not  to 
destroy,  but  to  fulfill  the  law.  The  apostle  says, 
it  became  him  to  fulfill  all  righteousness.1 

1  "  The  gospel  perfects,  fulfills,  completes  the  law.  The  lawgiver 
who  deals  with  acts  says:  Thou  sJialt  not  kill.  The  king  who  speaks 
to  the  heart  says,  Thou  shall  not  be  angry  with  thy  brother  without  cause. 
The  lawgiver  who  deals  with  acts  says  :  Thou  shalt  not  commit  adul- 
tery. The  king  over  the  spirit  who  speaks  to  the  heart  says,  Thou 
shalt  not  look  upon  a  woman  to  lust  after  her. 

"The  gospel  is  therefore,  from  the  foundation,  necessary  as  the 
law  itself  to  the  perfect  development  of  humanity. 

"Jesus  could  raise  the  standard  of  human  morality  in  opposition 
to  the  inhuman  standard  which  the  Pharisee  set  up,  because  he  wag 
himself  the  Son  of  man;  because  he  came  to  declare,  and  in  his  own 
Derson  to  manifest,  the  truth  that  God  and  man  are  not  divided,  but 


148  THE  CONVICTION  OF  THE  WORLD. 

It  does  not  take  away  one  jot  from  the  law. 
It  does  not  abrogate  the  commandment;  it  is  to 
exceed  the  righteousness  of  the  scribe  and  Phar- 
isee. It  does  not  annul  the  principle  of  an  eye 
for  an  eye,  —  it  retains  it,  but  it  transmutes  it ; 
it  retains  the  law, — it  does  not  render  it  void, 
it  transmutes  it.  It  is  raised  to  the  conception 
of  a  spiritual  ethic.  It  becomes  not  simply  the 
observance,  but  the  fulfillment,  of  the  law.  It  is 
no  longer  external  and  formal  as  the  discipline  of 
a  school  master,  as  of  those  of  old  time.  It  is  not 
simply  the  precedent  of  the  scribe  nor  the  maxim 
oi  the  Pharisee.1  It  is  spiritual,  and  is  to  become 
the  law  of  the  life  and  freedom  of  the  spirit.  It 
is  no  longer  simply  a  command,  thou  shall  and 
thou  sJialt  not,  although  this  persists,  but  it  adds 
and  further,  thou  shalt  love  ;  and  it  comes  to  the 
individual  as  existing  in  divine  relations,  and  in 
an  ethical  life  in  which  the  goodness  of  man  is  one 
in  its  quality  with  the  goodness  of  God,  ~be  ye  per- 
fect, even  as  your  Father  which  is  in  heaven  is 
perfect ;  as  the  divine  forgiveness  is  a  rescript  of 
our  forgiveness,  forgive  us  our  trespasses  as  we 

eternally  united;  because,  therefore,  that  which  is  truly  human  must 
auswer  to  that  which  is  truly  divine."  (Maurice,  Sermons,  vol.  ii. 
p.  J50.) 

1  u  We  do  not  know  our  duties  apart  from  our  relations,  and  the 
knowledge  of  our  relations  helps  us  to  the  performance  as  well  as  the 
knowledge  of  our  duties."  (Erskine,  Memoirs,  p.  344.)  "  I  know 
no  gi  *mnd  for  the  relationships  among  men  but  their  common  rela- 
tion to  God."  (Maurice,  Sermons,  vol.  i.  p.  15.) 


OF  EIGHTEOUSNESS.  149 

forgive  those  that  trespass  against  us.  It  is  not  a 
local  nor  an  exclusive  morality,  but  it  is  a  univer- 
sal morality;  — that  ye  may  be  the  children  of  your 
Father  which  is  in  heaven  ;  for  he  maketh  his  sun 
to  rise  on  the  evil  and  on  the  good,  and  sendeth 
rain  on  the  just  and  on  the  unjust.1 

The  ethical  principle  has  in  every  form  a  con- 
stant affirmation.  It  is  the  law  of  judgment  and 
of  life.  The  Christ  says,  if  thou  wilt  enter  into 
life,  keep  the  commandments  ;  and  again,  if  ye  love 
me  ye  will  keep  my  commandments.  S.  Paul  says, 
be  not  deceived ;  God  is  not  mocked;  for  whatso- 
ever a  man  soweth  that  shall  he  also  reap  ;  for  he 

1  "  The  morality  of  the  gospel,  because  it  proposes  to  man  only 
the  highest  standard,  lays  less  burden  upon  him  than  any  other.  The 
Christ  teaches  us  that  the  burden  is  not  in  the  straitness  of  the  law, 
but  in  ourselves ;  that  a  law,  every  law,  human  or  divine,  must  be 
weak  through  the  flesh;  that  so  long  as  we  are  merely  trying  to  obey 
a  rule  we  shall  find  that  rule  a  burden;  that  when  we  claim  our 
rights  as  new  men,  as  created  in  Him  to  good  works,  as  children  of 
a  Father  in  heaven,  we  become  united  with  Him  from  whom  laws 
proceed.  Obedience  to  them  is  recognized  as  part  of  our  constitu- 
tion; disobedience  is  the  unnatural,  miserable  state. 

"  If  this  morality  of  the  Christ  is  not  casuistical  morality,  still  less 
is  it  rhetorical  morality.  The  rhetorician  exalts  virtues,  as  if  they 
were  characteristic  of  certain  favored  persons  whom  it  is  his  calling 
to  praise;  denounces  vices,  as  if  none  could  have  fallen  into  them 
but  those  whom  it  is  his  calling  to  vituperate.  Our  Lord  speaks  of 
the  highest  virtues  which  any  man  has  ever  practiced  as  being  re- 
semblances to  the  Father  in  heaven,  who  has  made  all  men  in  his 
image;  who  has  redeemed  all  in  Christ,  that  they  may  be  renewed 
in  his  image.  Our  Lord  treats  all  vices  which  the  law  condemns 
as  lying  close  to  every  man,  as  being  the  consequences  of  inclina- 
tions to  which  no  man  is  a  stranger."  (Maurice,  Sermons,  vol.  ii. 
p.  343.) 


150  THE  CONVICTION  OF  THE  WORLD. 

that  soweth  to  his  flesh  shall  of  the  flesh  reap  cor- 
ruption; l>ut  he  that  soweth  to  the  Spirit  shall  of 
the  Spirit  reap  life  everlasting.  The  law  is  univer- 
sal ;  whatever  be  the  schemes  or  theories  of  men, 
it  is  continuous  and  invariable.  It  is  not  annulled 
through  faith,  but  through  faith  there  may  come 
a  deeper  knowledge  of  its  reality,  —  of  that  cor- 
ruption which  shall  say  unto  the  grave,  Thou  art 
my  mother !  and  of  that  life  which  is  unto  the 
spirit,  and  of  the  spirit  shall  reap  life  everlasting. 
But  the  law  is  invariable,  as  a  man  soweth  so 
shall  his  reaping  be. 

The  revelation  of  God  and  of  his  righteousness 
is  in  the  judgment  of  the  world.  It  is  the  judg- 
ment of  men  and  of  nations. 

This  judgment  is  the  revelation  of  light.  It  is 
a  day  of  judgment ;  it  is  the  day  of  the  Lord  as 
the  prophet  saw  it;  it  is  the  day  of  the  coming 
of  the  Son  of  man. 

It  is  a  judgment  of  righteousness.  It  is  not  an 
event;  it  is  a  crisis.  It  is  not  retired  to  a  remote 
past ;  it  is  not  adjourned  to  a  more  remote  future. 
It  is  a  judgment  whose  hour  is  not  thus  known  to 
those  to  whom  it  comes,  in  the  crises  of  human 
existence.  It  is  not  merely  an  event  in  the  se- 
quence of  affairs,  —  it  is  a  judgment  with  the 
discrimination  of  good  and  evil  and  the  issue  of 
righteousness.  It  is  not  of  one  day  or  one  age 
alone  ;  it  is  here  and  now.  The  Christ  says,  now 


OF  JUDGMENT.  151 

is  the  judgment  of  this  world;  and  in  that  tran- 
scendent vision,  I  beheld  Satan  as  lightning  fall 
from  heaven. 

This  judgment  is  an  object  of  desire.  The  pa- 
tience with  which  the  forces  of  wrong  and  fraud, 
the  evil  of  the  world,  is  endured  is  with  the  con- 
viction that  a  day  of  doom  shall  come.  The 
prayer  thus  has  always  been,  Arise,  0  Lord,  and 
judge  the  earth.  Through  the  ages  it  has  been 
repeated,  Let  the  earth  rejoice,  for  he  cometh  in 
righteousness  to  judge  the  world,  and  the  people 
with  his  truth.1 

The  man  of  affairs,  the  statesman  whose  ethical 
conception  does  not  consist  with  the  material  sys- 
tems and  commercial  theories  of  recent  schools, 
has  said  that  what  he  dreaded  for  his  land  was 
not  the  day  of  judgment,  but  the  day  of  no  judg- 
ment. 

Tnis  judgment  is  itself  grounded  on  the  princi- 
ple which  it  makes  known ;  that  human  life  has 
not  its  origin  nor  its  completeness  in  the  limita- 
tions of  a  physical  process ;  that  we  live  in  infinite 
relations.  This  day,  —  this  day  of  the  coming  of 
the  Son  of  man,  has  another  dawn  than  that  which 

1  "  We  may  be  wont  to  divide  the  advent  for  mercy  from  the  ad- 
vent for  judgment,  by  an  intervening  tract  of  ages.  In  the  prophets 
they  are  brought  together.  The  apostle  refers  to  Jesus  the  words 
of  the  prophet  whom  the  Church  has  called  the  Prophet  of  the  Ad- 
vent, a  bruised  rued  shall  he  not  break,  till  he  send  forth  judgment  unto 
victory,  and  in  his  name  shall  the  Qentiles  trust."  (Maurice,  Sermons^ 
vol  iii.  p.  2.) 


152  THE  CONVICTION  OF  THE  WORLD. 

breaks  in  the  eastern  sky,  and  another  close  than 
that  which  belongs  to  the  hours  marked  by  the 
swing  of  the  pendulum.  For  men  and  nations 
there  are  courses  which  have  no  measure  in  the 
finite :  they  have  an  infinite  import  and  reality. 
There  are  paths  of  spiritual  death  and  life,  the 
righteous  enter  into  eternal  life,  and  the  wicked 
into  eternal  punishment. 

This  judgment  is  not  formed  simply  in  the  dis- 
tribution and  transmission  of  things  that  are  seen. 
It  does  not  find  the  issues  of  the  actions  of  men 
only  within  the  limits  of  a  physical  process,  and  as 
affecting  a  life  concluded  in  that  process,  but  it  is 
a  judgment  which  regards  human  action  as  hav- 
ing a  spiritual  character,  and  therefore  an  eternal 
significance. 

This  judgment  is  not,  therefore,  subject  to  finite 
limitations.  It  is  not  the  exclusive  incident  of  a 
certain  time  and  a  certain  locality.  The  Christ 
says  they  that  are  in  their  graves  shall  come  forth, 
—  they  that  have  done  good  to  the  resurrection  of 
life,  and  they  that  have  done  evil  to  the  resurrection 
of  judgment ;  —  and  this  is  the  evidence  of  the 
character  and  continuation  of  ethical  conditions. 
This  judgment  is  in  the  hour  that  cometh  and 
now  is,  but  it  is  not  limited  to  the  present,  and  it 
does  not  detach  the  future  from  the  present. 
There  is  in  evil  always  a  foreboding  of  judgment 
to  come  ;  there  is  a  doom  which  sin  bears  within 
itself  ;  there  is  a  looking  for  of  judgment.  This 


OF  JUDGMENT.  153 

judgment,  in  the  distinction  and  manifestation  of 
righteousness  and  wickedness,  is  real  and  ethical 
and  eternal. 

This  judgment  has  its  precedent  in  and  is 
involved  with  the  revelation  of  God  to  the  world. 
The  Christ  says,  this  is  the  judgment,  that  light 
is  come  into  the  world,  and  men  loved  darkness 
rather  than  light,  because  their  deeds  were  evil. 

This  judgment  of  the  world  is  constant ;  it  is 
continuous.  It  may  come  as  in  other  days,  as  the 
world  fares  on,  as  men  are  eating  and  drinking 
and  planting  and  building,  claiming  dominion  over 
this  earth.  It  may  come  with  the  close  of  one 
age  and  the  beginning  of  another  age.  It  may  be 
with  the  end  of  an  old  world  and  the  beginning  of 
a  new  world.  The  disciples  ask  the  Christ  when 
the  end  shall  be,  when  shall  come  the  end  of  that 
age,  and  the  appearing  of  the  Son  of  man.  The 
Christ,  in  the  description  of  this  judgment,  with 
words  that  are  awful  in  their  imagery  and  in  the 
burden  that  they  bear,  says  to  them,  this  genera- 
tion shall  not  pass  away,  till  all  these  things  be 
fulfilled.  The  words  are  not  indeterminate,  but, 
-  as  if  they  were  difficult  to  apprehend,  and  their 
sense  was  to  be  perverted  in  some  duplicity  of 
thought,  and  the  notions  of  men  which  prevailed 
were  to  be  maintained  as  the  substitute  for  them, 
«—  they  are  preceded  by  the  most  simple  illustra- 
tion drawn  from  nature,  and  they  are  followed  by 
the  most  awful  affirmation :  learn  now  a  parable 


154  THE  CONVICTION  OF  THE  WORLD. 

of  the  fig  tree :  when  his  branch  is  yet  tender,  and 
putteth  forth  leaves,  ye  know  that  summer  is  nigh; 
so,  likewise,  when  ye  shall  see  all  these  things,  know 
that  it  is  near,  even  at  the  doors.  Verily,  I  say 
unto  you,  this  generation  shall  not  pass,  till  all 
these  things  be  fulfilled.  Heaven  and  earth  shall 
pass  away,  but  my  words  shall  not  pass  away.  It 
was  to  come  in  a  day  and  an  hour  that  no  man 
knew.  It  was  not  merely  an  incident  of  time,  but 
its  issues  were  eternal.  It  was  to  concern,  not 
only  the  exclusive  nation,  but  all  nations.  It  was 
to  come  to  that  age  and  that  generation,  but  it 
might  come  in  every  age  and  to  every  generation. 

It  was  a  judgment  by  a  person ;  it  was  not  a 
judgment  subject  to  a  formal  law,  with  the  adjudi- 
cation of  a  tribunal  of  formal  process.  It  was  the 
judgment  of  One  who  on  this  earth,  and  in  the 
changes  of  its  history,  had  lived  in  the  conflict 
and  the  overcoming  of  evil  and  in  the  manifesta- 
tion of  the  truth. 

This  judgment  has  a  strict  ethical  import ;  it 
has  no  other  import.  It  is  not  on  formal  lines 
which  are  the  prescriptions  of  men,  and  from 
which  the  condition  of  men  and  nations  is  deter- 
mined. It  allows  no  phrases  current  with  religious 
conventions ;  it  is  not  a  distinction  of  the  religious 
and  the  irreligious,  with  the  various  conceptions  at- 
tached to  these  terms.  It  is  a  judgment  in  right- 
eousness ;  the  righteous  shall  inherit  eternal  life,  the 
wicked  shall  go  into  eternal  punishment 


OF  JUDGMENT. 

The  law  of  the  judgment  of  the  world  is 
which  is  manifest  in  the  coming  of  the  Son  of 
man.  The  law  is  in  the  coming  of  the  Son  of 
man,  as  it  is  for  every  generation  in  the  trial  and 
conflict  of  humanity.  The  Christ  says,  I  was  an 
hungered,  and  ye  gave  me  meat ;  I  was  thirsty, 
and  ye  gave  me  drink ;  I  was  a  stranger,  and 
ye  took  me  in  ;  I  was  sick,  and  ye  visited  me ; 
I  was  in  prison,  and  ye  came  unto  me.  If  the 
words  call  out  surprise,  and  it  may  be  suffer 
rejection  as  the  law  of  the  divine  judgment,  with 
the  inquiry,  when  saw  we  thee  an  hungered,  and 
when  saio  we  thee  in  prison  ?  the  answer  is,  inas- 
much as  ye  have  done  it  unto  one  of  the  least  of 
these  my  brethren,  ye  have  done  it  unto  me. 

This  judgment  is  universal.  It  is  for  every 
generation  ;  there  is  no  exemption.  It  is  not  the 
application  of  a  law  for  which  some  substitute 
may  be  allowed.  For  those  who  have  done  good 
and  faithful  service,  who  have  striven  for  right- 
eousness, for  the  life  of  humanity,  there  is  an  en- 
trance into  the  joy  which  was  His  in  the  sorrow 
and  contradiction  of  earth,  —  the  joy  that  trans- 
figured the  suffering  and  death  of  this  earth,  Well 
done,  good  and  faithful  servant :  enter  thou  into  the 
joy  of  thy  Lord. 

This  judgment  is  universal,  for  it  is  in  the 
coming  of  the  Son  of  man.  Its  symbolism  indi- 
cates the  glory  with  which  humanity  is  invested  in 
the  coming  of  the  Son  of  man. 


156  THE  CONVICTION  OF  THE  WORLD. 

This  judgment,  in  its  ethical  import,  in  its  law 
of  the  oneness  of  the  Christ  with  humanity,  and 
in  its  realization  in  the  life  of  humanity,  is  beyond 
the  conceptions  of  the  religious  imagination.  That 
has  portrayed  a  judgment  which  is  a  remote  and 
isolated  scene.  It  is  to  be  a  high  court  where  all 
are  convened  at  its  tribunal.  There  are  scenic 
descriptions  of  this  judgment,  as  in  the  writings  of 
Josephus  and  through  the  wide  ranges  of  oriental 
religious  literature.  It  is  remanded  to  a  remote 
future.  It  is  transposed  beyond  the  confines  of 
earth  and  the  vulgar  scenes  which  mark  this 
bank  and  shoal  of  time.  It  is  the  precedent  to 
an  abode  of  happiness  and  an  abode  of  misery, 
which  are  adjusted  in  contiguity  to  it.  Then  this 
life  is  defined  as  the  emptiness,  and  the  life  be- 
yond as  the  fullness  of  desire.  Its  law  is  only 
that  of  reversals  and  reprisals.  It  becomes,  then, 
through  the  imagination,  apprehended  only  as  an 
event  of  strangeness,  and  is  resolved  into  pictures 
and  images.  It  is  in  its  distant  outline  an  object 
of  vague  and  undefined  dread.  It  is  an  event  for 
which  time  may  bring  evasions.  The  removal  of 
this  judgment  to  a  remote  future,  beyond  them 
and  their  generation,  heightens  its  appeal  to  the 
imagination,  while  it  brings  indifference  to  the 
conscience.  It  becomes  a  ground  of  apathy  in  the 
ethical  life  of  men.  But  when  this  judgment  is 
apprehended  in  its  real  and  spiritual  import,  as 
near  and  at  the  very  door,  as  the  judgment  of 


OF  JUDGMENT.  157 

truth,  then  the  conscience  cannot  be  set  at  rest  by 
any  theories  or  dreams,  nor  by  the  undefined  an- 
ticipations of  evasion  or  delay. 

The  issues  of  this  judgment  have  an  eternal  sig- 
nificance. The  word  seonian  may  denote  an  indef- 
inite term  of  finite  duration.  But  it  does  not  as- 
sume that  the  judgment  of  this  world  is  simply  in 
finite  terms,  or  that  man  is  thus  regarded  simply 
as  existing  in  finite  relations.  It  has  another 
quality  •  it  has  an  infinite  significance  ;  it  is  not 
measured  in  material  proportions.  The  conse- 
quence of  righteousness  and  of  every  righteous 
action  is  in  eternal  life ;  and  the  consequence  of 
wickedness  and  of  every  wicked  action  is  in  eter- 
nal death.  Thus  there  is  never  in  the  conflict  of 
an  ethical  life  exemption  from  the  consequences  of 
evil.  That  these  issues  are  not  detached  from  the 
actual  condition  of  man,  and  that  they  are  not 
transferred  to  some  remote  date,  has  its  evidence 
in  the  conscience  and  the  consciousness  of  men. 

In  the  ancient  symbol  it  is  written  of  the  se- 
quences of  sin,  In  the  day  that  thou  eatest  thereof, 
ihou  slialt  surely  die.  S.  Paul  says,  the  law  of 
death  has  passed  upon  all  men;  and  again,  the 
wages  of  sin  is  death.  The  Christ  says,  he  that 
believeth  in  me,  though  he  were  dead,  yet  shall  he 
live:  and  whosoever  liveth  and  believeth  in  me 
shall  never  die. 

There  is  thus  a  deeper  significance  than  is  meas- 
ured in  the  abstract  definitions  of  a  formal  logic, 


158  THE   CONVICTION   OF  THE   WORLD. 

in  the  words :  the  things  which  are  seen  are  tem- 
poral; but  the  things  which  are  not  seen  are  eter- 
nal. S.  Paul  nowhere  says  the  things  which  are 
present  are  temporal,  and  the  things  which  are 
future  are  eternal.  This  notion  does  not  consist 
with  his  words,  nor  with  the  necessary  conclusions 
of  thought.  Its  postulate  is  in  the  assumption  of 
the  antithesis  of  the  human  and  the  divine  ;  that 
the  human  is  lower  and  the  divine  upper;  that 
the  temporal  is  present  and  the  eternal  is  future ; 
that  the  finite  is  here  and  the  infinite  is  there.  It 
does  correspond  with  the  prevalent  notions  of  re- 
ligious schemes.  It  becomes  the  ground  of  their 
detraction  of  the  life  of  humanity.  It  accords  also 
with  that  exclusive  temper  to  which  the  religious 
mind  tenaciously  clings  in  its  apprehension  of  the 
future,  and  which,  as  a  religious  sect,  it  holds 
strongly  in  the  measure  of  its  sectarianism.  It 
consists  further  with  indifference  to  the  ethical 
life,  the  life  of  righteousness,  and  it  brings  a  rid- 
dance to  the  conscience  of  men  and  nations  of  the 
sequences  of  their  unrighteousness,  and  of  their 
breaking  of  the  commandments  of  God,  whose  ful- 
fillment is  the  life  of  humanity,  by  the  transposi- 
tion of  these  consequences  to  a  remote  future.  It 
brings  an  illusive  security,  when  the  punishment 
of  wickedness  and  the  recompense  of  righteousness 
should  have  a  stronger  assertion.  That  the  words 
themselves  at  last  become  emptied  of  all  meaning 
by  the  religious  schools  and  by  the  physical  schools 


OF  JUDGMENT.  159 

furnishes  only  another  illustration  of  that  law  of 
the  spiritual  and  divine  ethic :  /rom  him  that  hath 
not,  shall  be  taken  away  even  that  which  he  hath. 
The  Christ  answers  his  disciples  :  The  disciples 
came  and  said  unto  him,  Why  speakest  thou  unto 
them  in  parables  f  He  answered  and  said  unto 
them,  Because  it  is  given  unto  you  to  know  the  mys- 
teries of  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  but  to  them  it  is 
not  given.  For  whosoever  hath  to  him  shall  be 
given,  and  he  shall  have  more  abundantly ;  but 
whosoever  hath  not,  from  him  shall  be  taken  away 
even  that  he  hath.  Therefore  speak  I  to  them  in 
parables  ;  because  they  seeing  see  not ;  and  hearing 
they  hear  not,  neither  do  they  understand.  And 
in  them  is  fulfilled  the  prophecy  of  Esaias  which 
saith,  By  hearing  ye  shall  hear  and  shall  not  under- 
stand ;  and  seeing  ye  shall  see  and  shall  not  per- 
ceive :  for  this  people's  heart  is  waxed  gross,  and 
their  ears  are  dull  of  hearing,  and  their  eyes  they 
have  closed  ;  lest  at  any  time  they  should  see  with 
their  eyes,  and  hear  with  their  ears,  and  should 
understand  with  their  hearts,  and  should  be  con- 
verted, and  I  should  heal  them;  but  blessed  are 
your  eyes,  for  they  see,  and  your  ears,  for  they  hear. 
For  verily  I  say  unto  you,  that  many  prophets  and 
righteous  men  have  desired  to  see  those  things 
which  ye  see,  and  have  not  seen  them,  and  to  hear 
those  things  which  ye  hear,  and  have  not  heard 
them. 

The  eternal  is  the  name  of  God ;  its  meaning  is 


160  THE  CONVICTION  OF  THE  WORLD. 

more  than  with  no  beginning  and  no  ending.  The 
name  of  God  is  not  thus  summed  up  in  negations ; 
these  do  not  constitute  his  eternity.  S.  John 
say6*,  this  is  eternal  life,  to  know  thee,  the  only 
true,  God,  and  Jesus  Christ,  whom  thou  hast  sent. 
It  is  a  spiritual  life,  a  life  not  dependent  on  nor 
determined  by  things  visible,  but  in  relation  with 
the  Father  and  the  Son,  in  fellowship  with  the 
Holy  Spirit. 

The  separation  from  the  light  and  the  knowl- 
edge of  God,  the  rejection  of  all  relation  to  him 
and  to  humanity  in  him,  involves  eternal  death. 
But  in  this  separation  man  is  not  left  in  abandon- 
ment ;  the  wrath  of  God  follows  and  abides  on  any 
man  who  continues  in  sin,  not  on  man  as  in  a  con- 
dition of  necessity,  where  a  dualistic  development 
is  realized  and  no  unity  can  be  attained,  and 
where  his  doom  is  irrevocable,  that  no  redemptive 
power  or  grace  can  abate  it,  but  the  wrath  of  God 
continues  and  abides  on  man  because  he  is  re- 
lated to  God.  It  were  woe  for  man,  if,  left  with 
sin,  no  judgment  followed  him. 

The  consequence  of  wickedness  is  eternal  pun- 
ishment, and  this  is  the  assertion  of  an  immutable 
principle.  The  punishment  is  eternal.  But  to 
identify  this  with  an  irrevocable  doom  is  to  set  a 
finite  limit  to  the  divine  redemption  and  to  its  per- 
fect realization.  It  brings  a  section  of  the  human 
race  into  an  ultimate  condition  of  fate,  and  not  of 
freedom.  The  spiritual  law  is  eternal,  but  not  the 


OF  JUDGMENT.  161 

necessary  continuance  in  sin  of  one  child  of  earth 
and  time. 

The  words  in  which  the  Christ  says  to  his  dis- 
ciples that  this  judgment  shall  be  pronounced,  in 
the  coming  of  the  Son  of  man,  —  Come,  ye  blessed 
of  my  Father,  inherit  the  kingdompreparedforyou 
from  the  foundation  of  the  world,  —  are  divested  of 
their  meaning  when  they  are  separated  from  the 
words  which  complete  them,  which  assert  the  law 
of  this  judgment  in  the  oneness  of  the  Christ  with 
humanity.  And  the  words,  Depart  from  me,  ye 
cursed,  into  eternal  fire,  prepared  for  the  devil  and 
his  angels,  when  they  are  severed  from  this  law, 
and  are  pronounced  as  the  realization  of  a  final 
dualism  and  an  utter  fatalism,  with  their  trans- 
position into  the  far  hereafter,  are  dismissed,  as 
there  is  no  response  in  the  life  of  humanity.  The 
words,  then,  which  should  express  the  awful  con- 
demnation of  sin  and  of  every  sin  became  weak 
and  broken,  and  the  whole  subject  is  set  aside  as 
inconsistent  with  the  relations  of  humanity,  in- 
stead of  bringing  out  the  very  ground  of  these  re- 
lations. 

It  is  said  that  if  this  eternal  death,  which  is  the 
sequence  of  sin,  has  a  terminus,  then  eternal  life 
may  have.  But  while  this  holds  these  terms  in 
finite  measures,  and  thus  empties  them  of  their 
real  meaning,  it  may  be  said  that  eternal  death, 
the  death  of  sin,  the  law  which  has  passed  upon 

all,  has  a  terminus    in   the   kingdom  of   the  Ke- 
11 


162  THE  CONVICTION  OF  THE  WORLD. 

deemer.  And  eternal  life  would  have  an  end  if  it 
did  not  rest,  if  life  and  peace  did  not  rest,  in  the 
will  of  God  and  the  communion  of  the  Spirit. 

This  eternal  punishment  is  the  manifestation  of 
sin,  for  sin  has  in  it  the  severance  of  all  those  rela- 
tions to  God  and  to  man  which  are  eternal  in  their 
foundation.  If  man  did  not  live  in  infinite  rela- 
tions there  would  be  no  condition  of  sin. 

The  sin  is  here,  and  the  death  of  sin ;  the  eternal 
punishment  is  here,  and  continues  with  the  con- 
tinuing of  sin,  and  is  the  actual  manifestation  of 
the  nature  of  sin. 

There  is  in  and  from  God  infinite  love  for 
man,  and  infinite  hatred  for  sin,  and  this  infinite 
hatred  for  sin  is  the  reflex  of  perfect  love.  Sin  is 
in  itself  destructive  of  love  ;  as  love  is  involved  in 
the  relations  of  men,  and  love  has  in  itself  an  ethi- 
cal quality  that  involves  the  hatred  of  sin.  Sin  is 
in  itself  destructive  of  life ;  there  is  in  it  no  ele- 
ment of  unity  ;  it  is  subversive  of  personality.  S. 
John  says,  He  that  believeth  hath  eternal  life  ;  this 
is  eternal  life,  to  believe  in  God.  The  apostle  says, 
the  life  that  I  live  is  by  faith  in  the  Son  of  God. 
It  is  not  a  life  determined  and  concluded  by  physi- 
cal limitations  and  conditions ;  it  is  above  the  limi- 
tations of  the  finite. 

In  its  nature,  sin,  and  every  act  of  sin,  has  its 
sequence  in  eternal  death ;  and  every  act  unto 
righteousness,  in  the  relation  of  humanity  to  the 
Christ  and  through  him  unto  God,  has  its  fulfill 


OF  JUDGMENT.  163 

ment  in  eternal  life.  This  is  invariable ;  it  is  a 
principle  not  restricted  to  other  ages  and  aeons, 
to  be  made  manifest  only  in  other  worlds.  It  is 
fulfilled  now  in  the  Christ,  in  his  kingdom,  in  the 
coming  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven  on  earth. 

S.  John  says,  now  are  we  passed  from  death 
unto  life.  This  is  now.  It  is  not  away  from 
the  here  and  into  the  hereafter;  it  is  not  de- 
fined by  the  passage  of  boundaries,  as  in  spa- 
tial relations,  and  by  intervals  of  transition,  as 
in  temporal  relations.  But  in  a  figurative  way  it 
becomes  true,  to  use  the  phrase  of  Erskine,  that 
man  may  be  in  one  place  in  eternal  life,  and  a 
rod  beyond  in  eternal  death ;  or  in  one  hour  in 
eternal  life,  and  in  another  hour  in  eternal  death. 
This  eternal  life  and  eternal  death,  these  infi- 
nite relations,  have  become  the  conditions  of  the 
existence  of  man. 

This  eternal  life  is  a  life  which  death  does  not 
touch;  for  even  death  itself,  which  marks  most 
clearly  the  sorrows  of  this  finite  world,  is  taken 
up  and  changed.  It  is  a  life  which  is  eternal 
with  God.  The  Christ  says,  he  that  believeth  in 
me,  though  he  were  dead,  yet  shall  he  live;  and 
whosoever  liveth  and  believeth  in  me  shall  never 
die.  The  assertion  of  the  issue  of  righteousness  in 
eternal  life,  and  wickedness  in  eternal  punishment, 
is  the  assertion  of  a  principle  involved  in  the  eth- 
ical relations  of  life,  and  it  is  consistent  with  the 
sequence  of  the  redemptive  life  of  the  Christ  in 


164  THE  CONVICTION  OF  THE  WOKLD. 

the  world,  because  the  ethical  life  of  man  has  not 
its  limitations  within  the  finite.  The  end  of  right- 
eousness is  in  eternal  life,  in  the  redemptive 
kingdom,  in  the  coming  of  the  Kingdom  of 
Heaven. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

THE  EEVELATION  OF  HEAVEN  TO  THE  WORLD. 

THE  life  which  is  manifested  in  the  coming  of 
the  Son  of  God,  and  has  its  realization  in  the 
eternal  life  of  man,  has  also  its  verification  in  the 
coming  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven. 

The  representation  of  heaven  was  an  unreality, 
while  still  it  was  invested  with  the  attractions  of 
that  which  the  eye  had  seen  and  the  ear  had  heard, 
and  it  had  entered  into  the  heart  of  man  to  con- 
ceive. 

The  words  which  the  Christ  repeats  are  the 
kingdom  of  heaven,  or  the  kingdom  of  God.  The 
gospel  is  called  the  gospel  of  the  kingdom,  or  the 
gospel  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven. 

This  expression  is  drawn  from  the  common 
political  life  of  men,  and  refers  to  historical  forces 
in  the  growth  of  society.  It  does  not  imply  that  a 
special  sacredness  attaches  to  this  form,  and  this 
form  has  not  the  relative  value  which  belongs  in 
the  traditions  of  the  Hebrew  and  Greek  and  Ro- 
man life  to  the  republic,  but  it  is  simply  the  com- 
mon and  contemporary  form. 

It  is  represented  as  a  kingdom,  and  has  its  im- 
plication in  the  historical  life  of  the  world,  but 


166      EEVELATION   OF  HEAVEN  TO   THE   WORLD. 

it  is  not  measured  by  any  temporal  and  spatial 
conditions  in  an  external  order ;  it  cometh  not  with 
observation.  It  is  not  the  product  of  historical 
forces,  as  these  forces  are  limited  and  defined  by 
strictly  physical  conditions.  It  is  not  derived  from 
them.  The  Christ  says,  My  kingdom  is  not  of 
this  world.  It  has  a  reality  which  does  not 
attach  to  that  which  has  its  derivation  and  ter- 
mination in  the  transient  forms  of  the  physical 
process  of  the  world.  It  is  real ;  it  is  not  to  suc- 
ceed an  actual,  with  an  empty  and  abstract  ideal, 
but  in  it  is  the  realization  of  the  ideal.  It  is 
not  the  vague  field  of  visionary  thought.  It  is 
not  remote,  that  it  should  become  inaccessible  ;  it 
is  open,  and  it  is  separated  from  earth  by  no  ex- 
ternal limitations,  that  it  should  be  approached 
over  measures  of  distance  or  tracts  of  time.1 

It  is  not  always  before  us,  as  if  located  in  the 
hereafter,  and  ever  on  and  away,  and  never  to  be 
gained.  These  are  strong  words,  that  stir  the  heart 
with  their  assurance,  the  kingdom  of  heaven  suffer- 
eth  violence,  and  the  violent  take  it  by  force. 

This  coming  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven  is  repre- 
sented in  the  same  words  that  describe  the  coming 

1  "  Eye  hath  not  seen,  nor  ear  heard,  neither  have  entered  into  the 
heart  of  man,  the  things  which  God  hath  prepared  for  them  that  love 
him ;  but  God  hath  revealed  them  unto  us  by  his  Spirit.  The  world 
of  which  the  apostle  speaks  is  not  a  future,  but  a  present  revelation. 
This  verse  is  often  quoted,  as  if  the  apostle,  by  the  things  prepared, 
meant  the  glories  of  a  world  to  be  visible  hereafter."  (Robertson 
Sermons,  vol.  i.  p.  25.) 


THE   GOSPEL   OF  ST.  LUKE.  167 

of  the  Son  of  man  on  the  earth.  The  Christ  said, 
Verily,  I  say  unto  you,  that  there  be  some  of  them 
that  stand  here  which  shall  not  taste  of  death,  till 
they  have  seen  the  kingdom  of  God  come  with 
power. 

This  kingdom,  of  which  the  annunciation  was 
the  gospel  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  had  its 
realization  in  the  coming  of  the  Christ  in  the 
life  of  the  Spirit.  It  came  with  the  power  of 
the  Spirit,  that  no  forces  of  this  earth  could 
overcome.  The  Christ  says  to  his  disciples, 
Verily,  verily,  I  say  unto  you,  that  ye  shall  weep 
and  lament,  but  the  world  shall  rejoice :  and  ye 
shall  be  sorrowful,  but  your  sorrow  shall  be  turned 
into  joy.  A.  woman  when  she  is  in  travail  hath 
sorrow  because  her  hour  is  come  ;  but  as  soon  as 
she  is  delivered  of  the  child,  she  remembereth  no 
more  the  anguish,  for  joy  that  a  man  is  born 
into  the  world.  And  ye  now  therefore*  have  sor- 
row, but  I  will  see  you  again,  and  your  heart  shall 
rejoice,  and  your  joy  no  man  taketh  from  you.  The 
perfected  man  of  God  was  to  come,  as  one  who 
opens  the  perfect  kingdom  of  God. 

This  end,  however  imperfectly  construed  in 
human  society,  was  the  aim  of  the  endeavor  of 
religion  and  the  speculation  of  philosophy.  In  the 
latter  form,  in  the  construction  of  philosophy,  it 
was,  however  imperfectly  conceived,  the  object  of 
the  republic  of  Plato  and  of  the  city  of  Aristotle. 

The  illustrations  of  this  kingdom  are  not  those 


168      REVELATION  OF  HEAVEN  TO   THE   WORLD. 

of  an  abstract  character,  nor  an  appeal  to  the 
abstract  imagination.  It  is  ethical  •  it  has  no 
other  description  ;  it  is  the  kingdom  of  righteous- 
ness and  peace  and  joy  in  the  Holy  Ghost. 

This  kingdom  has  come,  and  it  may  be  always 
coming  ;  it  is  in  the  realization  of  righteousness  in 
the  life  of  humanity.  It  has  come,  and  it  is  there- 
fore no  vacant  dream  ;  it  is  always  coming,  and  it 
is  therefore  to  be  striven  for  with  the  energy  and 
the  endeavor  of  men. 

The  signs  of  the  coming  of  this  kingdom  are  not 
those  that  are  to  be  written  upon  some  distant 
skies  that  sweep  around  the  earth  they  never 
meet.  They  are  not  the  suggestions  of  the  relig- 
ious imagination.  They  are  in  the  restored  life  of 
humanity  ;  the  blind  see,  and  the  lame  walk,  and 
the  poor  have  the  gospel  preached  to  them.  These 
are  the  signs  of  the  coming  of  the  kingdom  of 
heaven  that  the  evangelists  record. 

It  is  a  kingdom  that  asserts  and  recognizes  the 
presence  of  spiritual  forces ;  it  is  of  and  over  the 
spirits  of  men.  It  is  in  its  ethical  character  to 
invest  the  work  and  duties  of  men,  in  the  courses 
of  time,  with  its  own  substantive  strength.  This 
is  the  ground  of  the  words  of  S.  Paul,  for  your 
citizenship  is  in  heaven. 

The  relation  of  this  kingdom  to  the  common  life 
of  humanity  is  set  forth  in  words  which  have  no 
parallel :  Suffer  little  children  to  come  unto  me,  and 
forbid  them  not,  for  of  such  is  the  kingdom  of 


THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  LUKE.  169 

heaven.  These  are  words  in  which  science,  with 
the  limitations  of  physical  conditions,  can  find  no 
significance.  They  consist  with  the  assumptions  of 
no  religion,  but  they  are  justified  to  the  world, 
and  they  are  words  which  humanity  shall  keep  in 
its  heart,  until  the  travail  of  time  is  over. 

It  has  been  noted  that  the  pagan  religious  con- 
ceptions of  heaven  still  prevail,  and  the  thought 
and  emotion  of  men  are  moulded  by  them.  They 
determine  the  conception  of  this  revelation,  instead 
of  being  determined  by  it.  The  heavens  are  still 
far  above  us,  above  this  spot  which  men  call  earth, 
and  are  carried  on  and  away  before  us ;  they  are  still 
an  elysian  view ;  the  happy  fields  are  located  in  the 
future,  and  the  religious  imagination  invests  them 
with  images  of  delight ;  they  are  held  as  some 
enchantment,  to  body  forth  some  ecstatic  dream. 
The  pagan  religious  conception  sets  off  this  world 
by  a  separate  boundary  from  the  further  confines 
of  heaven  and  hell.  The  infinite  spiritual  depths 
and  heights  are  not  real  for  humanity.  It  is  not 
with  great,  nor  even  with  true,  prelusive  strains, 
but  on  vacant  keys  and  with  unanswering  tones, 
as  the  philosophy  of  agnosticism  would  taunt  us, 
that  it  utters  its  De  Profundis  and  its  In  Excelsis. 
This  pagan  conception  avoids  the  words  of  the 
Christ,  Behold  the  kingdom  of  God  is  within  you. 
It  says  that  it  is  not  within  you.  It  says  that  here 
all  still  is  nothingness,  and  all  within  is  emptiness, 
though  the  Christ  has  come  and  the  Spirit  has 


170      REVELATION  OF  HEAVEN  TO  THE  WORLD. 

been  given  unto  men ;  and  it  describes  this  king- 
dom as  inaccessible,  and  as  always  away  and  be- 
yond. It  brings  repose  to  the  conscience  and  con- 
fines for  the  consciousness  of  men,  while  it  leads 
the  imagination  on  with  the  representation  of  its 
pictorial  splendors. 

The  Christ  uses  the  word  heaven,  but  it  is  not 
the  repetition  nor  the  fulfillment  of  the  dream  of 
the  pagan  religions.  It  is  not  a  transportation 
nor  an  emigration  from  all  the  relations  of  human- 
ity. It  is  in  the  most  critical  passage,  which  is 
the  answer  to  the  hope  of  the  world,  the  expres- 
sion of  the  perfect  ethic,  that  the  Christ  says,  The 
kingdom  of  God  is  within  you. 

The  words  of  the  Christ  are  the  gospel  of  the 
kingdom.  The  kingdoms  of  this  world  become 
the  kingdom  of  the  Christ.  The  old  is  passing 
away,  but  it  is  not  as  if  lost  in  some  abysm  of  time, 
there  shall  be  new  heavens  and  a  new  earth,  where- 
in dwelleth  righteousness. 

But  the  tribes  of  men  succeed  each  other,  and 
the  generations  go,  and  the  world  seems  to  grow 
very  old,  old  beyond  all  the  records  upon  its  scarped 
cliffs  and  worn  shores.  We  trace  often  some  glory 
in  the  past  that  does  not  seem  to  return.  It  is 
no  satisfaction  to  know  that  it  has,'  in  the  attrition 
of  chemical  forces,  been  resolved  into  the  elements. 
There  comes  to  us  the  sense  of  a  glory  that  has 
waned  and  gone.  And  again,  the  signs  of  prog 


THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  LUKE.  171 

ress  seem  often  obscured,  and  the  very  texture  of 
history  woven  and  imbued  with  the  follies  and 
crimes  of  men.  There  seems  often  the  evidence 
only  of  an  aimless  struggle  and  strife,  with  no  other 
significance  than  the  struggle  and  the  strife,  and 
that  all  at  last  is  remerged  into  the  physical  ele- 
ments. 

We  see  not  yet  the  glory  that  shall  be.  The 
indications  of  the  fulfillment  of  that  which  kings 
and  prophets  sought  seem  very  far  off.  We  are 
subject  to  death,  and  we  see  not  yet,  in  the  life  of 
humanity,  the  perfect  conquest  of  death :  the  last 
enemy  that  shall  be  destroyed  is  death. 

But  not  alone,  in  solitary  visions,  as  to  the  pro- 
tomartyr,  when  in  the  hour  of  death  surrounded  by 
fierce  and  cruel  faces,  the  heavens  are  opened,  to 
behold  the  Son  of  man  sitting  at  the  right  hand 
of  the  power  of  God.  The  Christ,  in  his  own 
perfect  and  perfected  life,  overcame  death,  and  has 
opened  the  perfected  kingdom  of  God.  In  his 
oneness  with  humanity  is  the  ground  of  the  hope 
of  humanity.  We  see  not  now  the  glory  of  hu- 
manity through  the  conquest  of  death,  but  Jesus 
has  that  glory  :  One  in  a  certain  place  testified, 
saying,  What  is  man  that  thou  art  mindful  of 
him  ?  Thou  madest  him  a  little  lower  than  the 
angels;  thou  crownedst  him  with  glory  and  honor, 
and  didst  set  him  over  the  works  of  thy  hands; 
thou  hast  put  all  things  in  subjection  under  his 
feet :  but  now  we  see  not  yet  all  things  put  un- 


172      REVELATION  OF  HEAVEN  TO  THE   WORLD. 

der  him  ;  but  we  sec  Jesus,  who  was  made  a  little 
lower  than  the  angels,  for  the  suffering  of  death, 
crowned  with  glory  and  honor,  that  he,  by  the 
grace  of  God,  should  taste  death  for  every  man. 

The  kingdom  of  heaven  has  come,  it  is  coming, 
it  is  to  come.  It  moves  beyond  the  past  and 
through  the  present,  and  the  future  rises  beyond 
the  present.  The  Christ  said,  among  them  that 
are  born  of  woman,  there  hath  not  risen  a  greater 
than  John  the  Baptist ;  but  he  that  is  least  in  the 
kingdom  of  heaven  is  greater  than  he. 

There  is  a  glory  that  is  revealed,  and  a  greater 
glory  that  is  yet  to  be  revealed.  It  leads  us  forth 
and  forward,  and  while  the  life  of  man  is  in  no 
continuing  city,  and  is  among  things  which  do  not 
abide,  it  may  be  with  faith  and  hope  and  love. 
Thus  faith  and  hope  and  love  abide,  and  they  bear 
him  on,  and  even  when  they  seem  strange  in  this 
physical  order,  they  are  justified. 


CHAPTER 

THE   JUSTIFICATION   OF   THE  WOKLD. 

THE  condition  in  which  a  child  is  born,  in  the 
relation  of  the  family  and  the  nation,  however 
rude  and  imperfect  these  relations  may  be  in  their 
development,  in  the  ethical  process  of  the  world, 
calls  out  some  elements  of  faith. 

The  faith  which  is  the  gift  and  the  evocation  of 
this  revelation  is  involved  with  the  conscience  and 
the  consciousness  of  men.  It  has  in  its  source  and 
process  and  end  an  ethical  quality. 

This  faith  has  not  its  ground  and  end  in  an  ab- 
straction, as  a  law  or  a  system.  It  is  not  a  faith 
in  a  proposition  or  in  a  series  of  propositions,  and 
it  has  not  the  necessarily  external  character  that 
belongs  to  them.  It  is  faith  in  a  person,  a  right- 
eous person,  in  whom  there  is  the  foundation,  and 
through  whom  there  is  the  realization  of  the  life 
of  humanity.  It  is  faith  in  one  who  was  before 
the  world  was,  and  has  come  into  the  world  in  the 
fulfillment  of  righteousness,  for  the  redemption  of 
the  world.  This  faith  is  not  an  effort  of  man 
which  is  to  be  received  at  a  relative  value,  as  a 
substitute  for  another  effort  of  man.  It  is  not  to 
be  apprehended  as  in  itself  without  an  ethical 


174  THE  JUSTIFICATION  OF  THE   WORLD. 

quality,  nor  yet  to  be  placed  at  a  higher  value 
than  the  ethical  process  of  life.  It  is  not  isolated, 
but  is  related  to  hope  and  love,  and  each  can  but 
imperfectly  exist  without  the  other. 

These  have  each  no  merely  finite  ground  and 
end,  as  they  rest  in  one  who,  being  one  with  God, 
became  one  with  man,  and  whose  life  was  the  ful- 
fillment of  righteousness  in  the  life  of  the  world. 

This  faith  is  in  a  righteous  person,  in  whom  is 
revealed  the  ground  of  the  life  of  humanity,  and 
through  him  and  with  him  there  is  righteousness 
of  life.  This  is  an  actual  righteousness,  and 
through  faith  righteousness  is  wrought  and  has 
its  realization  in  life. 

This  is  the  significance  of  the  justification  of 
men  by  faith.  It  is  not  a  formal  act.1  It  is  not 
simply  an  act  of  reputation.  We  are  not  re- 
puted to  be  just  through  a  formal  relation,  but 
we  are  made  just  through  an  actual  relation.  It 
is  not  forensic.  In  its  forensic  use  this  word  de- 
notes an  acquittal  of  a  charge,  and  not  a  remission 
of  a  penalty.  It  is  not  the  authentication  of  a 

1  "  The  passion  of  Christ  was  not  to  be  the  substitute  for  our  per- 
sonal obedience,  but  the  source  of  it.  To  justify  is  to  make,  not 
simply  to  account,  men  just."  (Oxenham,  The  Catholic  Doctrine  of 
the  Atonement,  p.  86.)  "  This  is  not  a  fictitious  righteousness,  for 
then  it  would  be  a  fictitious  blessedness,  but  it  is  a  real  conformity 
to  the  will  of  God.  In  thy  seed  shall  all  the  kindreds  of  the  earth  be 
blessed.  God,  having  raised  up  his  son  Jesus,  sent  him  unto  you  first  to 
bless  you,  in  turning  away  every  one  of  you  from  his  iniquities."  (Era- 
kine,  Memoirs,  p.  187.) 


KIGHTEOUSNESS  BY  FAITH.  175 

justification  in  an  external  way ;  it  is  not  a  cer- 
tification of  character  in  an  abstract  way,  with 
ethical  indifferences.  It  is  not  the  apprehension  of 
this  proposition  by  faith.  It  is,  —  righteousness 
through  faith.1 

It  is  of  free  grace,  and  of  grace  unto  grace,  as 
it  is  given  to  all,  and  through  faith  man  is  brought 
into  an  immediate  relation  with  the  Christ.  It 

1  "  The  root  of  Luther's  contention  against  the  ancient  theology 
lay  rather  in  his  substitution  of  faith  in  the  sense  of  Jiducia,  or  the 
laying  hold  of  the  merits  of  Christ  by  an  act  of  trust,  for  the  Jides 
formata,  or  faith  working  by  love,  to  which  alone  the  catholic  doc- 
trine ascribes  a  justifying  power."  (Oxenham,  On  the  Atonement, 
p.  31.)  But  the  strength  of  the  thought  of  Luther  was  in  his  recog- 
nition of  faith,  as  immediate,  in  the  relation  of  man  with  God,  in  the 
relation  in  Christ;  so  that  it  was  not,  as  in  external  relations,  that 
any  power  on  earth,  or  priest  or  book,  should  stand  between  man 
and  God.  There  was  a  profounder  conception  in  the  doctrine  of 
Luther  and  Calvin,  which  gave  it  its  strength  in  working  toward  the 
freedom  of  men  and  of  nations.  Its  defect  was,  when  it  did  not  pass 
beyond  a  mere  particularism  or  individualism,  nor  apprehend  its  re- 
lation to  sacrifice,  and  came  at  last  to  be  regarded  as  an  intellectual 
apprehension,  the  conscious  act  of  a  mature  intelligence, — the  ap- 
prehension of  a  system,  and  the  acceptance  of  this  system  became 
the  standard  of  the  faith. 

"  To  merge  justification  in  sacrifice,  is  the  error  of  the  Roman- 
ist ;  to  merge  sacrifice  in  justification,  is  the  error  of  the  Protestant." 
(Maurice,  Sermons,  vol.  iv.  p.  19.)  This  may  indicate,  and  yet  only 
in  one  way,  their  respective  defects.  The  former  failed  to  appre- 
hend the  immediate  relation  of  man  to  God,  of  which  it  was  the  wit- 
ness; and  the  latter  came  to  apprehend  faith  as  only  the  conscious 
act  of  the  deliberate  mind,  which  had  not  its  ground  in  a  sacrifice 
that  was  for  the  sin  of  the  world.  Thus  it  came  to  be  a  practical 
faith  in  a  proposition  or  system,  the  act  of  a  fiduciary,  the  engage- 
ment of  a  constabulary,  and  the  work  of  its  minister  was  that  of  one 
who  holds  the  gospel,  as  if  it  had  passed  under  his  clientage,  and  its 
truths  were  to  be  distributed  at  his  discretion. 


176  THE  JUSTIFICATION  OF  THE  WOELD. 

has  not  its  ground  in  the  imputation  of  an  ex- 
ternal righteousness,  and  it  has  not,  therefore,  as 
its  condition,  faith  in  a  system  or  service.  It  is 
the  actual  implanting  of  righteousness  through  re- 
lation with  him,  who  has  taken  our  nature,  and 
in  whom  was  the  fulfillment  of  righteousness. 

Through  faith  in  a  righteous  person  who,  being 
one  with  God,  became  one  with  man,  in  the  man- 
ifestation of  perfect  righteousness,  man  is  brought 
into  the  righteousness  of  Christ.  It  is  the  way 
toward  communion  with  the  Christ. 

Faith  in  its  influence  is  retrospective,  but  more 
strictly,  in  its  relation  to  Him  who  was  and  is  and 
is  to  come,  the  words  retrospective  and  prospective 
do  not  apply.  It  is  faith  in  another ;  it  loses  its 
life  in  Him,  to  find  its  perfect  realization  of  life. 
It  is  being  in  another,  in  a  righteous  person,  and 
it  has  reference  to  the  poverty  of  self  alone  with 
self,  and  to  the  destitution  and  disgrace  and  guilt 
of  sin,  that  when  one  flees  to  Him,  as  to  a  refuge, 
guilt  cannot  hold  him,  shame  cannot  appall  him, 
the  universe  cannot  stay  him ;  he  is  clothed  with 
the  righteousness  and  the  freedom  of  God.  There 
are  no  words  strong  enough  to  portray  this  life. 
The  stains  of  guilt  are  all  effaced.  They  are 
cleansed  in  the  fountain  of  an  undying  love. 
The  robes  of  earth  are  washed  in  the  blood  of 
the  Lamb  that  was  slain  for  the  world.  The  cos- 
tumes of  selfishness  and  vanity  are  thrown  away. 
The  reproach  of  the  world  becomes  lost  in  the 


RIGHTEOUSNESS  BY  FAITH.  177 

distance,  to  be  heard  no  more.  There  are  no 
finite  limitations  for  the  spirit.  It  repeats  the 
rude  heroic  strain,  — 

"  Freely  justified,  I 
Shall  mount  to  the  sky, 
With  the  sun  and  moon  under  my  feet." 

Faith  in  a  righteous  person,  in  the  Christ,  who  is 
the  source  of  the  life  of  the  family  and  the  na- 
tion, leads  the  individual  away  from  himself,  and 
in  being  for  another  he  finds  his  real  life,  and 
enters  into  and  partakes  of  a  righteousness  that  is 
not  a  mere  self -righteousness  ;  —  a  righteousness 
that  he  may  resist,  and  the  end  is  death,  or  that 
he  may  enter  into,  and  may  find  his  own  life.  It 
is  this  that  has  been  wrought  into  the  unity  and 
strength  and  freedom  of  nations. 

And  this  faith  does  not  stay  by  itself.  It  goes 
out  toward  another,  as  it  is  faith  in  one  who  has 
given  himself  for  another.  It  can  exclude  none. 
It  becomes  the  ground  of  sacrifice.  It  blends  with 
love.  A  man  does  not,  then,  rest  on  the  quality 
or  the  relative  excellence  of  his  own  faith,  and 
that,  as  the  act  of  the  finite  mind,  can  soon  be 
determined  in  finite  measures ;  but  faith  itself  rests 
on  a  righteous  person,  —  one  who,  being  one  with 
God,  has  become  one  with  man,  in  the  realization 
of  the  perfect  righteousness. 

Faith  works  with  hope  and  love ;  it  is  faith  that 
worketh  by  love.  The  controversy  of  faith  and 
works  has  its  ground  in  empty  and  abstract  theo- 

12 


178  THE  JUSTIFICATION  OF  THE   WORLD. 

ries.  True  faith  is  one  with  works,  and  good 
works  are  one  with  faith,  because  both  alike  have 
righteousness  for  their  end. 

Therefore  faith  in  the  Christ  brings  us  into  that 
righteousness,  in  the  fulfillment  of  which  he  came 
into  the  world.  There  is  no  legal  fiction.  There  is 
no  fictitious  transference  of  righteousness,  but  there 
is  an  actual  participation  in  the  righteousness  of 
life  which  had  in  the  Christ  its  perfect  fulfillment.1 

Through  faith  there  is  communion  with  the 
Christ  in  his  eternal  life.  S.  Paul  says,  he  was 
raised  again  for  our  justification.  This  right- 
eousness that  was  vindicated  over  death,  and  de- 
clared in  his  resurrection  irom  the  dead,  is  ours, 
—  the  proper  righteousness  of  man,  and  in  him 
given  to  men. 

The  perfect  manifestation  of  God  is  in  the 
Christ.  Through  faith  in  the  Christ  there  is  for 
man  the  knowledge  of  the  love  of  God.  It  is  a 
faith  in  a  force  of  life  and  love  and  light  that  is 

1  "Looking  unto  Jesus,  who  is  the  author  and  the  finisher  of  our 
faith.  The  Epistle  bids  us  look  from  our  faith  to  a  Living  Person 
who  is  the  only  root  of  it,  the  only  end  of  it.  Our  faith  is  not  in 
itself,  but  in  him;  if  we  think  of  it,  instead  of  him,  it  perishes." 
(Maurice,  Sermons,  vol.  i.  p.  79.) 

Faith  is  not  the  condition  of  the  love  of  God,  but  through  faith 
there  is  the  apprehension  of  the  love  of  God,  and  doubt  is  removed 
and  fear,  in  the  knowledge  and  love  of  God.  Mr.  Erskine  says, 
"  The  proclamation  of  forgiveness  through  the  Christ  alone  will 
bring  peace  to  those  under  condemnation.  If  it  be  assumed  that 
forgiveness  is  not  actual  for  any  until  he  believes  it,  the  attention  is 
turned  to  the  quality  of  his  faith."  (Erskine,  Memoirs,  p.  86.) 


KIGHTEOUSNESS  BY  FAITH.  179 

deeper  than  the  forces  of  evil.  S.  John  says,  Jesus 
cried  and  said,  He  that  believeth  on  me  believeth 
not  on  me,  but  on  him  that  sent  me. 

The  love  and  the  forgiveness  of  God,  the  will  of 
God  toward  man,  is  made  known  to  man  in  the 
Christ. 

This  love  is  the  ground,  and  not  the  sequence, 
of  faith.  The  Christ  is  the  author  and  the  finisher 
of  our  faith. 

Through  faith  there  is  the  knowledge  of  the 
love  and  the  forgiveness  of  God,  and  through  faith 
there  is  righteousness  of  life.  There  is,  then,  no 
condemnation  to  him  that  believeth,  who  walks  not 
after  the  flesh,  but  after  the  spirit. 

Through  faitli  man  comes  into  the  life  of  God, 
the  life  of  love  and  righteousness.  This  is  the 
true  life  of  man.  It  apprehends  in  the  ground  of 
life  the  love  of  God,  and  in  the  fulfillment  of 
righteousness  the  will  of  God.  This  is  the  foun- 
dation of  the  life  of  the  family  and  the  nation  and, 
though  it  may  not  seem  justified  in  the  physical 
process,  without  it  — 

"  The  pillared  firmament  is  rottenness, 
And  earth's  base  built  on  stubble.'* 


CHAPTER  IX. 

THE   REDEMPTION   OF   THE   WORLD. 

THE  world  is  redeemed.  This  redemption  is 
real,  and  it  has  in  the  life  of  humanity  its  realiza- 
tion. The  world  is  redeemed  in  the  Christ,  and 
the  process  of  history  is  in  the  realization  of  the 
redemption  of  the  Christ. 

The  Christ  redeemed  the  world  by  becoming 
himself  the  perfect  redeemer.  In  his  own  life 
there  was  the  attainment  and  the  fulfillment  of 
the  perfect  righteousness.  It  was  a  life  in  the 
world  of  the  manifestation  of  perfect  truth  to  self 
in  the  life  of  the  Spirit. 

The  Christ  redeemed  the  world  by  becoming 
one  with  humanity,  in  the  life  of  the  world.  The 
Christ  became  man.  The  lite  of  humanity  is  in 
its  realization,  in  righteousness  and  freedom,  one 
with  the  life  of  the  Christ.  The  redemption  that 
he  has  wrought  is  the  redemption  of  humanity. 
It  is  for  us  men. 

The  Christ  redeemed  the  world  by  the  man- 
ifestation in  it  of  a  life  consistent  with  the  knowl- 
edge of  the  source  and  the  destination  of  life. 
There  is,  therefore,  no  power  to  come  forth  out 
from  the  beginning  or  the  end,  from  the  first  to 


THE  ATONEMENT.  181 

the  last,  with  intimations  of  force  or  fear,  that  can 
claim  subjection  from  man,  or  assert  dominion 
over  him,  or  can  effect  the  subversion  of  the  love 
that  is  at  the  source  and  centre  of  all  things,  or 
the  disruption  of  the  unity  that  is  in  the  will  of 
God,  that  is  manifesting  itself  in  the  reconciliation 
of  all  things.  The  Christ  says,  I  know  whence  I 
came,  and  whither  I  go  ;  and  again,  /  am  the  first 
and  the  last,  the  beginning  and  the  end  ;  I  am  he 
that  was  and  is  and  is  to  come. 

The  Christ  redeemed  the  world  by  the  manifes- 
tation and  realization  in  the  life  of  humanity  of  the 
coming  and  life  of  the  Spirit.  It  is  redeemed  by 
the  power  of  the  Spirit.  The  life  of  man  is 
lifted  above  physical  limitations,  and  is  not  deter- 
mined and  concluded  in  the  process  of  physical 
forces  and  forms.  It  is  not  merely  a  projection  of 
an  animal  existence,  subjected  to  fleshly  impulses 
and  the  satisfaction  of  fleshly  appetites.  It  is  not  a 
life  determined  by  external  relations  or  external 
circumstances.  It  is  the  life  which  is  not  mortal. 
It  has  the  strength  and  freedom  of  the  Spirit. 

The  Christ  redeemed  the  world  by  the  realiza- 
tion of  a  perfect  life,  in  the  fulfillment  of  perfect 
righteousness,  in  oneness  with  humanity,  and  in 
the  conflict  with  and  the  conquest  of  all  the 
forces,  by  which  humanity  is  alienated  from  God, 
and  men  are  alienated  from  each  other.  It  was 
the  conquest  of  all  the  forces  by  which  humanity 
is  enslaved  and  tortured  and  divided  and  da- 


182  THE  REDEMPTION  OF  THE   WORLD. 

stroyed.  He  met  the  forces  of  the  world  and 
their  temptations.  The  display  of  their  rewards 
for  subordination  to  the  pursuit  of  selfish  ends  was 
brought  before  him,  but  he  did  not  yield  to  them. 
The  trial  of  the  world  was  open  to  him,  but  he 
was  not  changed  nor  swerved  by  it,  that  his  life 
should  be  shaped  by  the  world.  The  Christ  passed 
through  death,  but  he  overcame  death.  It  was 

O  ' 

the  conquest  of  life  over  death.  The  words  of 
the  Christ  are,  I  have  overcome  the  world,  and 
again  he  says,  to  him  that  overcometh  will  I  grant 
to  sit  with  me  in  my  throne,  even  as  I  also  over- 
came, and  am  set  down  with  my  Father  in  his 
throned 

1  There  are  two  representations  of  the  work  and  sacrifice  of  the 
Christ  in  controversy  with  the  position  in  this  chapter.  The  one  re- 
gards the  atonement  as  a  legend,  although  one  of  the  most  beautiful  of 
the  legends  of  the  world.  The  Father  sends  the  Son;  the  Son  offers 
the  sacrifice  required,  and  returns  to  the  Father.  It  has  the  unity 
and  action  of  a  drama.  The  myths  gather  around  some  legendary 
hero.  It  is  beautiful  as  a  drama,  but  far  away  from  the  world,  to 
form  only  a  mythology  for  the  poet  and  superstitions  for  the  people. 

The  other  regards  it  as  a  scheme  of  divinity.  Justice  demands 
satisfaction.  Its  penalties  must  be  executed  with  indifference  as  to 
the  innocent  or  the  guilty,  if  only  the  law  be  maintained.  Mercy 
contends  with  justice,  and  wrath  is  averted  when  justice  is  ap- 
peased by  this  actual  substitution,  and  this  legal  fiction.  On  this 
system  faith  rests,  and  the  only  security  from  these  penalties  is 
through  its  adoption. 

These  views  are  not  far  apart;  they  are  abstractions;  the  one,  ii  a 
formal  way,  is  mythological,  the  other  logical,  but  beginning  and 
ending  in  mere  formulas.  They  are  throughout  in  controversy  with 
the  position  here  given.  There  is  in  the  redemption  the  manifes- 
tation of  God,  the  revelation  of  that  which  is  eternal  in  the  being  of 
God,  and  through  it  man  is  raised  to  an  eternal  life  with  God. 


THE   ATONEMENT.  183 

The  redemption  of  the  world  in  and  through 
the  Christ  was  the  manifestation  of  the  will  of 
God.  The  suffering  and  death  of  the  Christ  did 
not  change  the  will  of  God.  It  was  in  the  fulfill- 
ment of  the  will  of  God.  The  Christ  says,  Lo,  1 
come  to  do  thy  will ;  and  again,  /  have  declared 
thy  name  unto  them  and  will  declare  it.1  The  ex- 
pression of  the  completeness  of  his  redemptive 
work  is  in  the  words,  /  have  glorified  thee  on  the 

1  The  catechism  of  Trent,  explaining  the  reasons  why  the  Son  of 
God  suffered,  says  one  cause  consisted,  "  in  the  crimes  and  vices 
which  men  have  perpetrated  from  the  beginning  of  the  world  till 
now,  and  shall  perpetrate  henceforth  to  the  end  of  time;  for  in  his 
death  the  Son  of  God  contemplated  the  atonement  and  obliteration 
of  the  sins  of  all  ages."  (Cat.  ad  Paroch.,  Pars  I.  c.  v.) 

14  The  death  of  the  Christ  was  the  perfect  manifestation  and  the 
consummation  of  his  faith  in  the  Father."  (Campbell,  On  the 
Atonement,  p.  258.) 

"  Prophets  and  just  men,  under  the  old  law,  did  and  suffered 
much  to  bear  testimony  to  the  truth;  but  their  obedience,  like  their 
testimony,  was  imperfect.  He  alone  could  make  a  perfect  oblation 
of  the  human  will;  he  alone  as  man  could  make  an  act  of  perfect 
contrition,  who  knew  as  God  the  fullness  of  the  eternal  love,  and 
saw  as  God  sees  it  the  reality  of  the  contradiction  to  that  love." 
(Oxenham,  On  the  Atonement,  p.  77.) 

"  The  perfect  obedience  of  the  Son  discovers  the  perfect  loving 
will  of  the  Father.  Infinite  forgiveness  and  charity  are  shown  to  be 
at  the  root  of  all  things;  forgiveness  and  charity  that  are  only  seen, 
only  satisfied,  only  made  effectual  by  submission  and  sacrifice ;  for- 
giveness and  charity  that  are  not  intended  only  to  flow  forth  upon 
men,  but  to  flow  into  them,  to  become  a  part  of  their  character  and 
being."  (Maurice,  Sermons,  vol.  iii.  p.  380.) 

S.  Leo  says  of  the  relation  of  the  Father  and  the  Son,  "One  is 
the  kindness  of  their  mercy,  as  the  sentence  of  their  justice,  nor  is 
there  any  division  of  action  where  there  is  no  diversity  of  will." 
(S.  Leo,  Serm.  xxii.  4.) 


184  THE   REDEMPTION  OF  THE   WORLD. 

earth  :  I  have  finished  the  work  which  thou  gavest 
me  to  do. 

The  redemption  of  the  Christ  was  the  manifes- 
tation of  the  love  of  God  for  the  world.  It  is 
thus  that  in  the  incarnation,  the  atonement  has  its 
beginning,  and  the  one  is  involved  in  the  other. 
It  manifests  the  love  of  God.  It  was  not  the 
ground  of  that  love,  and  it  was  not  the  condition 
which  only  in  a  provisional  form  justified  that  love, 
but  the  love  of  God  for  the  world  was  the  motive 
which  went  toward  the  redemption  of  the  world  : 
God  so  loved  the  world,  that  he  gave  his  only  begot- 
ten Son  :  S.  John  says,  herein  is  love,  not  that  we 
loved  God,  'but  that  he  loved  us,  and  sent  his  Son 
to  be  the  propitiation  for  our  sins.  We  love  him 
because  he  first  loved  us.  There  can  be  here  no 
measure  of  the  infinite  love,  — 

44  Mine  was  the  life  that  was  won, 
And  thine  was  the  life  that  was  given." 

The  redemption  of  the  Christ  was  the  manifes- 
tation of  that  which  is  eternal  in  the  being  of  God. 
It  was  not  simply  a  provisional  work,  which  had 
its  ground  in  a  preceding  circumstance.  It  had 
not  its  origin  in  a  transient  condition,  and  it  was 
not  simply  an  adjustment  to  an  antecedent  condi- 
tion. It  was  the  Lamb  slain  from  the  foundation 
of  the  world. 

The  redemption  of  the  Christ  has  then  no  finite 
limitations.  It  has  no  measures  of  time.  It  is 
not  limited  by  our  computations  of  the  years  on 


THE  ATONEMENT.  185 

this  earth  :  the  Christ,  a  minister  of  the  sanctuary 
and  of  the  true  tabernacle  which  the  Lord  pitched, 
and  not  man,  entered  in  once  into  the  holy  place, 
having  obtained  eternal  redemption  for  us. 

The  redemption  of  the  Christ  is  wrought  in 
his  oneness  with  humanity,  in  and  through  the 
life  of  humanity.1  Through  the  relation  of  the 
Christ  with  humanity  the  redemption  of  the  world 
has  its  continuous  realization  in  the  life  of  hu- 
manity. The  law  which  was  fulfilled  in  the  Christ 
is  the  law  of  the  life  of  humanity.  The  Christ 
says,  whosoever  will  come  after  me,  let  him  deny 
himself,  and  take  up  his  cross  daily,  and  follow 
me.  Thus  S.  Paul  writes  of  the  fellowship  of  his 
sufferings.  He  speaks  again  of  filling  up  that 
which  is  behind  of  the  afflictions  of  Christ.  He 
says,  /  bear  in  my  body  the  marks  of  the  Lord 
Jesus.  This  expression  takes  on  the  intensest 
form  ;  he  says,  /  am  crucified  with  Christ.  He 
writes  of  his  glory  in  the  cross,  wherein  the  world 
is  crucified  unto  me,  and  I  unto  the  world.  He 
writes  of  always  bearing  about  in  the  body  the 

1  "  One  only  who  was  God  and  man  could  bring  man  again  into 
communion  with  God.  But  it  is  rather  his  assumption  of  our  na- 
ture in  all  its  fullness,  than  his  death  alone,  that  the  Fathers 
dwelt  upon.  He  is  the  representative  man,  the  second  Adam,  the 
head  of  the  body,  who  recapitulates  in  himself,  as  they  are  fond 
of  expressing  it,  the  whole  human  race,  and  imparts  to  them, 
through  the  union  of  their  nature  with  his,  a  new  principle  of  life, 
in  whose  death  all  die,  in  whose  resurrection  all  are  made  alive. 
This  is  the  great  argument  of  Athanasius."  (Oxenham,  On  the 
Atonement,  p.  144.) 


186  THE   REDEMPTION  OF   THE   WORLD. 

dying  of  the  Lord  Jesus,  that  the  life  also  of  Jesus 
may  be  manifested  in  our  body.  There  is  the  same 
expression  in  the  words  of  S.  Peter,  ye  are  called, 
because  Christ  also  suffered  for  us,  leaving  us  an 
example,  that  we  should  follow  his  steps.  The  suf- 
fering of  humanity  is  transfigured.  The  suffering 
and  sacrifice  of  the  world  is  not  henceforth  merely 
in  the  projection  of  a  physical  process,  nor  with 
other  alternatives  of  suffering  and  sacrifice  in  the 
development  of  a  historical  process  ;  and  thus  the 
sacrifice  of  the  soldier  who  dies  in  battle  for  the 
nation  is  not  the  mere  conformance  to  a  law  of 
historical  necessity,  but  in  such  suffering  and  sac- 
rifice there  is  the  redemptive  life  of  the  world. 

We  are  called,  since  the  Christ  has  given  him- 
self a  sacrifice  for  us.  In  a  correspondence  with 
other  types  and  forms  of  sacrifice,  it  is  written, 
wherefore  Jesus  also,  that  he  might  sanctify  the 
people  with  his  own  blood,  suffered  without  the 
gate.  This  is  made  the  ground  of  a  principle  of 
duty,  and  we  are  bidden,  let  us  go  forth,  therefore, 
unto  him  without  the  camp,  bearing  his  reproach. 
This  is  not  the  suffering  of  the  Christ  as  an  equiv- 
alent for  the  suffering  of  humanity,  nor  as  a  sub- 
stitute for  humanity ;  it  is  the  sacrifice  of  the 
Christ  fulfilled  in  humanity.  It  is  the  adoption  of 
the  sacrifice  by  participation  by  humanity  ;  let  us 
go  forth,  therefore,  unto  him  without  the  camp 
bearing  his  reproach.  The  Christ  had  said,  if 
any  'man  will  come  after  me,  let  him  take  up  his 


THE  ATONEMENT.  187 

cross  and  follow  me  ;  and  he  said  of  his  disciples, 
in  their  continuing  relation  with  him.  Ye  shall 
drink  indeed  of  my  cup,  and  be  baptized  with  the 
baptism  that  I  am  baptized  with. 

There  is  thenceforth  in  the  life  of  humanity  the 
manifestation  of  redemptive  forces.  There  are  re- 
demptive forces  continuing  in  the  coming  of  the 
Christ  and  in  the  life  of  the  Spirit,  in  his  re- 
demptive kingdom  on  the  earth.  They  come 
forth  in  the  life  of  righteousness  in  the  family  and 
the  nation.  These  are  the  forces  which  work 
through  the  life  of  humanity,  in  conflict  with  the 
evil  of  the  world.  The  law  of  sacrifice  becomes, 
then,  the  law  of  life.1  The  contradiction  in  the 
revelation  of  the  Christ  is  verified  and  solved  in 
the  course  of  history,  and  the  words  are  justi- 
fied :  he  that  loseth  his  life  shall  find  it.  The 
work  of  sacrifice  goes  on  in  the  process  of  history. 

1  The  theories  of  life,  in  the  physical  school,  cannot  wholly  ef- 
face the  consciousness  of  this  law  of  self-renunciation,  though  their 
assertion  of  it  may  be  inconsequent.  "  There  need  be  no  disap- 
pointed ambition,  if  a  man  were  to  set  before  himself  a  true  aim  in 
life,  and  to  work  definitely  for  it;  no  envy,  if  he  considered  that  it 
mattered  not  whether  he  did  a  certain  great  thing,  or  some  one  else, 
if  only  it  were  done;  no  grief  from  loss  of  fortune,  if  he  estimated 
at  its  true  value  that  which  fortune  can  bring  him,  and  that  which 
fortune  can  never  bring  him;  no  wounded  self-love,  if  he  had  learned 
well  the  eternal  lesson  of  life, —  self-renunciation."  (Maudsley,  On 
Responsibility  in  Mental  Disease,  p.  210.)  This  recognizes  an  ele- 
ment of  self-renunciation,  but  it  has  no  ground  in  a  life  determined 
in  physical  limitations;  it  has  no  justification  in  a  life  in  finite  con- 
ditions. It  is  only  because  it  has  another  and  higher  ground  that  it 
becomes  the  eternal  lesson  of  life. 


188  THE   REDEMPTION  OF  THE   WORLD. 

The  Lamb  that  was  slain  from  the  foundation  of 
the  world  prefigures  its  course.  The  condition  of 
the  life  of  the  last  nation  becomes  the  same  as 
the  first,  the  sacrifice  of  the  worthier  of  her  chil- 
dren. Their  sacrifice  is  the  perpetuation  of  the 
life  of  the  nation  ;  their  sacrifice  is  the  way  to 
her  deliverance  from  slavery ;  their  sacrifice  is  the 
ground  of  her  unity  and  peace.  This  was  not  the 
sacrifice  of  a  certain  number  of  men  for  a  certain 
other  number  of  men  ;  it  was  not  the  sacrifice  of 
a  certain  smaller  number  of  men  that  a  certain 
larger  number  might  be  exempt  from  sacrifice, 
and  might  live  in  self-indulgence.  It  was  sacri- 
fice for  the  life  of  the  nation.  It  was  life  through 
death.  It  was  that  in  all  there  might  be  the  spirit 
and  recognition  of  the  law  of  sacrifice,  the  self- 
renunciation  of  the  individual,  which  is  the  only 
way  to  the  perfect  self-realization,  and  the  begin- 
ning of  the  life  that  is  eternal.  This  law  has  a 
moral  ground,  which  cannot  be  comprehended  in 
the  atomy  of  human  society,  nor  in  the  severance 
through  society  of  the  superior  from  the  inferior, 
nor  in  the  apprehension  of  it  as  an  accumulation 
of  private  interests,  nor  in  any  detachment  of  it 
from  God.1 

1  "  The  atonement  is  the  manifestation  of  the  hope  of  God  for 
man.  The  nature  of  that  hope  which  was  in  God  for  man,  and 
which  the  atonement  has  brought  within  the  reach  of  our  spirits,  has 
indeed  been  necessarily  determined  by  our  primary  and  ultimate 
relation  to  God  as  the  Father  of  our  spirits."  (Campbell,  On  the 
Atonement,  p.  187.) 


THE   THEONE   OF  SACRIFICE.  189 

Henceforth  the  law  of  sacrifice  becomes  the 
law  of  power.  In  this  world  of  forms  the  sym- 
bols of  sacrifice  become  the  symbols  of  power. 
The  Lamb  that  was  slain  from  the  foundation  of 
the  world  becomes,  in  the  mystic  vision  of  S.  John 
the  Divine,  the  Lamb  that  sits  in  the  midst  of  the 
throne.  This  type  is  not  lost  in  history.  The 
manifestation  of  power  is  not  in  a  separation  from 
men,  nor  in  the  assertion  of  a  dominion  over  men, 
but  in  the  service  of  men.  It  is  not  the  Csesar 
that  becomes  the  enduring  power  with  men.  The 
nation,  which  in  this  last  age,  is  the  exponent  of 
the  highest  historical  forces,  has  its  foundations, 
its  unity  and  order  and  freedom,  laid  in  sacrifice. 
But  it  is  through  sacrifice,  as  through  the  nega- 
tion of  this  finite  world,  that  there  is  the  coming 
of  the  life  that  is  eternal,  the  realization  of  the 
life  that  is  infinite. 

The  sacrifice  of  the  Christ  was  the  perfect  and 
finished  sacrifice,  —  the  sacrifice  of  one  who  bore 
the  burden  of  this  finite  world,  in  the  fulfillment 
of  the  perfect  righteousness,  the  manifestation  of 
the  perfect  love,  the  revelation  of  the  perfect  life. 
It  was  the  will  of  God  before  the  foundation  of 
the  world ;  it  was  the  sufficient  sacrifice  for  the 
sin  of  the  whole  world,  the  foundation  of  eternal 
life  and  unity  and  peace. 

The  redemption  through  the  Christ  was  wrought 


190  THE  REDEMPTION  OF  THE   WORLD. 

in  the  satisfaction  of  love  and  justice,  in  the  ful- 
fillment of  the  will  of  God  in  the  creation  of  the 
world,  —  the  foundation  that  was  before  and  be- 
neath the  foundations  of  this  finite  world.  It  was 
the  satisfaction  of  God,  the  satisfaction  of  Christ 
and  of  the  conscience  of  men.  And  love  is  inex- 
orable as  justice,  and  involves  duty  as  the  sum  of 
the  commandments  of  the  law.  It  was  not  the 
satisfaction  of  justice  apart  from  love,  nor  as  the 
precedent  condition  of  the  revelation  of  love.  For 
in  relation  to  the  law  there  was  not  merely  the 
satisfaction,  but  the  fulfillment  of  the  law.  It 
was  not  a  satisfaction  of  justice  by  the  imposition 
upon  the  innocent  of  the  punishments  of  the 
guilty,  nor,  by  the  substitution  of  an  equivalent 
of  the  same  measure  through  a  series  of  legal  fic- 
tions, and  in  that  there  would  be  no  measure  of 
gain.  In  a  higher  sense  justice  is  satisfied  when 
righteousness  is  actualized  on  the  earth.  Justice 
is  vindicated  when  it  is  asserted  and  established. 
It  is  not  a  compensation  to  balance  injustice  that 
is  required,  nor  an  equivalent  for  sin  or  for  the 
sequences  of  sin,  but  the  power  to  overcome  evil, 
and  to  bring  men  out  of  sin. 

The  suffering  and  the  death  of  Christ  did  not 
take  away  the  wrath  of  God  against  sin,  for  if 
any  man  continue  in  sin  the  wrath  of  God  dbideth 
on  him,  There  was  in  the  Christ  the  strongest 
assertion  of  the  wrath  of  God  against  sin.  It  was 
the  announcement  of  the  woe  that  is  to  follow  sic 


THE  DELIVERANCE  FKOM  EVIL.        191 

in  men  and  nations.  But  it  were  woe  if  the  wrath 
of  God  was  averted  from  sin.  It  were  woe  to 
men  and  nations  if  there  were  no  judgment,  in 
which  the  consequences  of  evil  courses  were  man- 
ifested. 

The  Christ  redeems  the  world  from  sin  and 
from  the  sequences  of  sin.  The  Christ,  coming 
into  the  world  where  sin  was,  endured  in  it  the 
effects  of  sin.  He  endured  death ;  he  was  wounded 
for  our  transgressions,  and  bruised  for  our  in- 
iquities. 

The  redemption  of  the  world  is  from  sin  and 
unto  righteousness.  It  is  from  the  bondage  of  sin 
into  the  freedom  of  God.  It  is  of  the  world  unto 
God.1 

This  redemption  of  the  spirit  of  man  is  from 
the  forces  by  which,  as  external  to  itself,  it  is 
determined,  and  through  this  redemption  from 
these  forces  its  life  becomes  a  self-determined 
life,  in  truth  to  self,  the  life  of  freedom.  This 
freedom  is  not  the  detachment  of  self,  but  it  is  in 
the  life  of  the  spirit ;  it  is  not  the  isolation  of  self 
and  its  vacancy,  but  the  energy  and  communion 
of  the  life  of  the  spirit.  It  is  the  rescue  from  evil, 

1  "  S.  Paul  says  every  sacrifice  implies  communion  with  the  being 
to  Avhom  it  is  offered.  So  the  end  of  Christ's  incarnation  and 
death  was  to  establish  a  complete  communion  between  men  on  earth 
and  their  Father  in  heaven,  which  may  be  most  real  now,  but  the 
full  fruldon  of  which  can  only  be  when  all  the  evil  which  resists  the 
divine  righteousness  and  love  is  entirely  vanquished."  (Maurice, 
Sermons,  vol.  i.  p.  43.") 


192      THE  REDEMPTION  OF  THE  WORLD. 

as  evil  is  alien  to  the  spirit  of  man.  It  is  the  de- 
liverance from  the  dominion  of  sin,  from  the  prin- 
cipalities and  powers  which  would  claim  to  them- 
selves the  subjection  of  the  spirit,  and  assume  a 
domination  over  it,ybr  sin  shall  not  have  dominion 
over  you.  This  is  the  deepest  expression  of  the 
experience  of  life  :  if  we  be  dead  with  Christ  we 
believe  that  we  shall  also  live  with  him  :  knowing 
that  Christy  being  raised  from  the  dead,  dieth  no 
more  ;  death  hath  no  more  dominion  over  him;  for 
in  that  he  died  he  died  unto  sin  once,  but  in  that  he 
liveth  he  liveth  unto  God. 

This  redemption  of  the  world  is  through  the 
suffering  and  death  and  resurrection  of  the  Christ. 
This  sacrifice  of  the  Christ  was  in  his  coming  into 
the  world ;  it  was  the  earthly  life  of  service  ;  it 
was  the  last  sacrifice  in  death.  It  was  not  simply 
the  sacrifice  of  one  for  another ;  it  was  the  sacrifice 
of  him  who  had  become  one  with  humanity  for  the 
life  of  humanity.  It  was  the  sacrifice  that  was  the 
fulfillment  of  love.  This  is  not  the  negation  of 
self  with  the  implication  of  the  cessation  of  self, 
an  utter  nihilism,  but  there  is  the  perfect  self- 
realization,  the  realization  of  life.  It  is  not  the 
dethronement,  but  it  is  the  enthronement  of  life. 
It  is  not  for  life  to  be  ( onquered  by  death ;  it  is 
the  conquest  of  death.  It  is  a  sacrifice  of  self,  and 
this  is  its  ethical  significance,  but  in  it  is  the  at- 
tainment of  life.  The  law  of  self-renunciation  is  the 


THE  DELIVERANCE  FROM  E 

law  of  self-realization,  and  the  way  throng 
is  unto  life.  And  as  death  in  the  physical 
ess  involves  always  isolation  and  the  severance  of 
the  relations  of  life,  so  in  the  life  of  the  spirit  it 
is  a  communion  and  an  eternal  life,  since  the  Christ 
has  partaken  of  death  for  every  man}  It  is  not, 
therefore,  the  death  of  the  Christ  in  itself  that  is 
to  be  regarded  primarily ;  it  is  the  conquest  of 
death  in  the  Christ.2 

There  was  a  significance  in  the  judgment  and 
condemnation  of  the  Christ,  by  the  world,  by  rit- 
ual and  imperial  tribunals.  He  came  to  the  death 
of  a  slave  on  this  earth.  For  the  ignorance  of 
the  multitude  that  made  itself  the  instrument  of 
the  world's  derision  and  the  world's  torture  he 
offered  the  prayer  of  forgiveness  to  the  Father ; 
Father,  forgive  them,  for  they  know  not  what  they 
do.  To  them,  to  whom  it  seemed  the  profanation 
of  the  universe,  that  the  Christ  the  Son  of  God 
was  to  become  the  Son  of  man  he  uttered  the 
transcendent  words :  The  high  priest  asked  him 
again,  and  said  unto  him,  Art  thou  the  Christ,  the 
Son  of  the  Blessed  ?  And  Jesus  said,  I  am,  and 
ye  shall  see  the  Son  of  man  sitting  on  the  right 
hand  of  power,  and  coming  in  the  clouds  of  heaven. 

1  "  The  atonement  is  truly  apprehended  only  when  the  work  of 
Christ,  through  which  we  have  the  remission  of  sins  that  are  past, 
is  contemplated  in  direct  relation  to  the  gift€l  eternal  life."  (Camp- 
bell, On  the  Atonement,  p.  133.) 

2  "  The  death  of  the  Christ  is  never  to  be  considered  apart  from 
the  resurrection."     (Rothe,  Dogmatik,  vol.  ii.  p.  220.) 

13 


194  THE  REDEMPTION  OF  THE   WORLD. 

The  Christ  met  death  in  the  last  conflict.  The 
Christ  did  not  evade  death,  nor  open  a  way  to  a 
continuous  existence  on  the  earth,  in  this  domain 
of  time  and  space,  that  was  preempted  from  death. 
It  was  in  order  that  by  death  he  might  deliver 
them  who  through  fear  of  death  were  all  their  life- 
time subject  to  bondage.  S.  Paul  says,  in  that  he 
died  he  died  unto  sin  once,  but  in  that  he  liveth  he 
liveth  unto  God. 

The  Christ  overcame  death.  It  was  the  reali- 
zation of  a  life  that  was  for  humanity  above  death. 

There  was  in  the  death  of  the  Christ  the  real- 
ization of  the  divine  transfiguration,  of  which  the 
witness  had  been  given  in  the  historical  life  of 
humanity,  —  which  had  its  evidence  in  the  law 
and  the  prophets.  Then  the  sorrow  of  the  world 
was  turned  into  joy.  Then  the  isolation  and  death 
of  the  world  was  transmuted  into  life,  in  the  com- 
munion of  God. 

The  redemption  of  the  world  is  from  sin.  The 
Christ  comes,  —  the  Saviour  of  the  world.  In  him 
is  the  revelation  of  the  living  truth;  in  him  is 
the  perfect  righteousness.  He  is  the  only  Sav- 
iour, as  there  is  one  truth  alone  and  absolute,  in 
which  man  may  rest.  There  is  one  God,  one  hu- 
manity, one  divine  and  perfect  redeemer,  though 
there  be  many  through  whom  this  redemption  is 
wrought,  that  God  may  be  all  in  all.  It  is  said  of 
him,  he  shall  save  his  people  from  their  sins.  S. 
Paul  says,  Christ  gave  himself  for  us  that  he  might 


THE  DAY  OF  SALVATION.  195 

redeem  us  from  all  iniquity :  he  is  the  Lamb  of 
God  which  takeih  away  the,  sin  of  the  world. 
This  salvation  is  not  an  incident  of  the  past,  nor 
deferred  to  the  future ;  the  apostle  says,  now 
is  the  day  of  salvation.  This  is  the  ground  of 
the  energy  and  freedom  of  the  spirit,  and  its 
peace.1 

There  is  the  assurance  that  the  redemption  of 
the  world  shall  have  its  perfect  realization,  in 
Christ  shall  all  be  made  alive.  This  is  not  the 
assertion  of  a  law  of  physical  necessity,  as  .  the 
iteration  of  a  fate,  that  forces  of  compulsion  shall 
constrain  the  will.  This  redemption  is  to  bring 
man  out  from  the  subjection  to  forces  which  are 
external  to  the  will  and  are  alien  to  the  spirit  of 
man,  and  into  freedom.  It  is  from  the  bondage 
and  the  doom  of  sin.  It  is  with  the  salvation  of 
man,  that  there  comes  alone  a  higher  energy  and 
ampler  freedom.  Through  sin  the  slavery  of  man 
exists,  and  every  sin  brings  a  deeper  bondage,  and 
a  consequent  degradation,  by  a  law  of  moral  con- 
ditions ;  but  the  forces  of  evil  are  met  by  redemp- 
tive forces,  and  in  the  fulfillment  of  the  true  and 
eternal  being  of  man.  These  redemptive  forces 

1  "  Cast  thy  burdens  upon  the  Lord.  For  he  to  whom  past  and 
present  and  future  are  all  one,  He  who  is  and  was  and  is  to  come 
invites  you  to  claim  fellowship  with  Him  in  his  Son  your  Lord. 
Seeking  him  you  do  cast  away  those  burdens  which  are  pressing 
down  your  spirit,  the  burden  which  he  bore,  who  bore  the  sins  of  the 
world.  You  can  come  with  all  your  darkness  into  his  light."  (Matt 
rice,  Sermons,  vol.  i.  p.  74.) 


196  THE  REDEMPTION  OF  THE  WORLD. 

shall  prevail,  with  the  fulfillment  of  the  life  of 
humanity  in  God. 

To  the  inquiry,  Are  there  few  that  be  saved  ? 
the  answer  is,  strive  to  enter  in  at  the  strait  gate. 
This  energy  that  strives  is  the  first  element  of 
freedom:  It  is  the  call  to  no  apathy  and  vacancy 
of  will  y  it  overcomes  the  enervation  of  the  spirit- 
ual powers  of  man  which  sin  has  wrought.  Ifc  is 
the  quickening  of  life.  It  affirms  that  he  that 
loveth  is  born  of  God,  and  the  end  of  the  redemp- 
tion is  the  manifestation  of  the  sons  of  God.  It 
asserts  that  he  that  believeth  shall  be  saved,  and 
he  that  believeth  not  shall  be  condemned  ;  and  it 
sets  forth  this  condemnation,  that  light  has  come 
into  the  world,  and  men  loved  darkness  rather 
than  light,  because  their  deeds  were  evil;  and, 
therefore,  there  is  now  no  condemnation  to  them 
which  are  in  Christ  Jesus,  who  walk  not  after  the 
flesh,  but  after  the  spirit. 

It  does  not  assert  in  any  moment,  for  any  man, 
in  the  here  or  the  hereafter,  an  irrevocable  doom. 
Its  end  is  to  save  man  from  sin  and  from  the 
doom  involved  in  sin.  It  does  not  place  any  with- 
out hope ;  it  makes  hope  a  virtue,  difficult  as  all 
virtue  is  in  this  world,  but  still  one  with  faith  and 
love,  and  if  illusive,  then  also  faith  and  love,  for 
which  the  same  ground  and  end  is  revealed,  are 
illusive.  It  asserts  that  men  and  nations  may 
choose  darkness,  and  refuse  to  recognize  the  re- 
demption and  revelation  of  the  love  of  God,  and 


THE  END  OF  THE  PHYSICAL  PROCESS.    197 

to  believe  in  it,  and  to  work  for  the  realization  of 
righteousness  and  freedom  in  the  life  of  humanity. 
It  asserts  the  judgment  that  shall  come,  and  bring 
the  forces  of  evil  that  have  their  strength  in  dark- 
ness to  the  light.  In  the  oneness  of  the  Christ 
with  humanity,  it  asserts  the  blessing  which  shall 
be  upon  those  who  minister  in  the  simplest  offices, 
and  to  the  lowliest,  and  the  judgment  on  those 
whose  action  shall  tend  to  the  degradation  of  men 
and  of  nations. 

There  is  in  the  Christ  the  redemption  of  the 
world,  —  it  is  the  redemption  of  the  world.  The 
evidence  of  love  and  freedom  has  its  imperfect  ex- 
pression, in  this  physical  world.  There  is,  indeed, 
in  the  forms  of  nature,  that  which  may  recall  to 
man  his  origin  and  destiny,  which  she  bears  riot  in 
herself ;  and  the  lilies  as  they  grow,  and  the  sun 
that  has  shone,  and  the  rain  that  has  fallen  upon 
the  just  and  the  unjust,  may  verify  the  thought 
of  him  who  hath  not  left  himself  without  a  wit- 
ness, —  though  it  be  only  to  him  that  receives  it ; 
and  the  clouds  that  gather  in  the  evening  sky  may 
awaken  the  hope  of  another  dawn;  and  nature, 
even  from  her  embers,  may  bring  the  intimations 
of  immortality  with  the  remembrance  of  what 
seems  so  fugitive.  But  it  is  in  this  revelation 
that  there  is  manifest,  through  the  negation,  the 
fulfillment  of  the  finite  world.  In  this  revelation 
the  knowledge  of  the  fipal  cause  and  end  of  the 
world  is  open  to  man.  In  the  reflected  light  that 


198  THE  REDEMPTION   OF  THE  WORLD. 

comes  to  the  darkness  and  trial  of  earth,  and 
reaches  the  depths  of  the  variance  and  the  sin  and 
the  suffering  of  the  world,  the  end  of  the  physical 
process  is  manifested,  in  the  fulfillment  of  unity, 
and  in  the  realization  of  perfect  love  and  perfect 
freedom.  It  is  the  end  of  the  struggle  of  human 
existence,  it  is  the  transfiguration  of  the  sorrow  of 
earth.  It  does  not  veil  the  pain  of  this  physical 
world ;  it  unveils  its  end,  in  the  realization  of  the 
freedom  and  relationship  of  humanity  with  God. 
In  words  which  preclude  limitation,  and  embrace 
the  entire  physical  process,  S.  Paul  says,  the  whole 
creation  groaneth  and  travaileth  together  in  pain, 
waiting  for  the  manifestation  of  the  sons  of  God. 

The  Christ  in  the  redemption  of  the  world  ac- 
complished the  reconciliation  of  the  world  unto 
God ;  God  was  in  Christ,  reconciling  the  world 
unto  himself.  It  is  the  reconciliation  of  an  exist- 
ence, in  which  man  is  born  into  a  condition  in 
which  sin  and  the  effects  of  sin  are  transmitted,  in 
its  hereditaments,  an  estate  of  sin  and  misery,  in 
which  there  is  suffering  and  death.  It  is  not  the 
reconciliation  of  diametric  forces  which  are  oppo- 
sites,  and  this  would  be  the  postulate  and  require 
the  conclusions  of  a  dualism ;  it  is  not  the  recon- 
ciliation of  the  holy  and  the  profane,  the  wicked 
and  the  righteous,  the  forces  which  are  of  the 
world  and  the  forces  which  are  of  God,  —  it  is 
the  reconciliation  of  the  world  unto  God.  The 


THE  FREEDOM   OF   THE   CITY.  199 

finite  is  transmuted  into  the  infinite,  the  earthly 
is  lifted  unto  the  heavenly.1 

The  redemption  of  the  world  has  its  end  in  the 
realization  of  the  freedom  of  humanity  in  God. 
The  end  of  the  world  is  the  fulfillment  of  the  life 
of  humanity  in  God ;  God  is  free,  and  will  have  all 
men  to  be  free,  with  the  freedom  of  the  sons  of 
God.  The  apostle  says,  the  Christ  came  to  redeem 
them  that  were  under  the  law,  that  we  might  receive 
the  adoption  of  sons.  He  says,  Christ  suffered  for 
us,  that  he  might  bring  us  to  God.  This  freedom 
is  real  in  the  life  of  the  spirit.  This  freedom  is  not 
a  mere  indifference,  as  is  implied  in  the  power  of 
choice,  although  this  power  is  incident  to  the  de- 
velopment of  freedom  in  this  finite  world.  It  is 
not  a  negative  freedom,  that  is  void  of  all  moral 

1  The  reconciliation  of  the  world  is  perfect,  and  it  is  therefore 
\hat  we  are  bidden  to  live  as  sorrowful,  yet  always  rejoicing.  It  is 
beyond  the  thought  merely  of  the  restoration,  and  the  Church  re- 
peats in  its  high  service  the  words  of  S.  Augustine,  0  felix  culpa, 
quae  talem  et  tantum  meruit  liabere  Redemptorem.  "  It  destroys  evil 
with  good  :  the  central  principle  of  the  atonement  must  be  the  same 
as  the  central  principle  of  the  whole  revelation  ;  Christ  satisfies 
iustice  by  establishing  righteousness,  not  as  in  a  drama,  nor  in  any 
pictorial  or  representative  way,  but  as  a  fact.  What  can  condemn 
sin,  but  that  which  destroys  sin;  what  vindicates  justice  but  that 
which  makes  it  a  universal  reality."  (Hunger,  A  Statement  of 
Theology,  p.  20.) 

"  God  the  Son  came  upon  earth  to  satisfy  his  own  justice  as  much 
as  to  satisfy  his  Father's,  and  for  the  accomplishment  of  his  Father's 
love  to  man  as  much  as  for  his  own."  (Benson,  quoted  in  Oxenham, 
Vn  the  Atonement,  p.  89.) 


200  THE   REDEMPTION  OF  THE   WORLD. 

determination  and  energy.  It  is  not  a  formal 
freedom,  which  is  realized  in  the  maintenance  of 
external  conditions.  It  is  one  with  righteousness ; 
it  is  not,  then,  a  mere  conformity  to  an  external 
law.  The  redemption  could  not  be,  through  the 
application  of  an  external  law.  S.  Paul  says,  ~by 
the  deeds  of  the  law  there  shall  no  flesh  ~be  justified. 
It  could  only  be  in  the  life  of  the  spirit,  in  the 
righteousness  and  freedom  of  the  spirit.  This  is 
not  a  conformance  to  an  abstract  law,  and  it  is  not 
a  formal  freedom.  It  is  spiritual  and  real.1  It  is 
from  the  condition  of  a  servant,  into  the  relation 
of  a  son.  It  is  from  the  bondage  of  sin  into  the 
freedom  of  God.  It  is  only  from  the  being  of 
God,  and  the  realization  of  freedom  that  we  come 
to  the  knowledge  of  the  infinite.  And  man  only 
has  a  perfect  freedom,  as  he  rises  into  the  life  of 

1  This  freedom  does  not  belong  to  man,  as  his  being  is  deter- 
mined in  the  necessary  relations  of  the  physical  process.  It  has  not 
its  measure  in  the  physical  process,  — 

"  Surelier  it  labors,  if  slowlier, 
Than  the  meters  of  star  or  of  sun." 

This  freedom  is  gained  in  the  overcoming  of  evil ;  it  is  the  overcom- 
ing of  evil  with  good. 

"  Many  may  rise  up  in  judgment  against  those  who  live  in  other 
circumstances,  to  whom  the  name  of  Freedom  has  become  so  much 
a  name  of  course,  that  they  jest  at  it  as  a  school-boy  phrase,  or  ask 
how  much  they  are  richer  for  it,  or  wish  they  could  barter  it  for 
some  of  the  conveniences  of  despotism.  This  purposeless,  heartless 
temper,  as  it  increases,  tends  to  the  fulfillment  of  its  own  desires. 
Liberty  cannot  last  when  the  aspiration  for  it  has  perished.  Des- 
potism is  sure  to  come  when  it  is  beckoned  for."  (Maurice, 
mons,  vol.  iv.  p.  91.) 


THE  ETERNAL  LIFE.  201 

God.  There  is  alone  no  limitation  there,  and  the 
personality  of  man,  as  it  has  its  source  in  God,  has 
its  real  life  with  God.  There  the  self-renunciation 
and  the  obedience  of  the  human  will  is  fulfilled 
in  the  absolute  will ;  and  the  bare  resistant  forces 
of  the  will  are  transmuted  into  consistent  forces  of 
life  and  its  energy.  It  is  in  these  relations  that 
the  human  will  attains  its  real  freedom,  but  apart 
from  them,  and  apart  by  itself,  within  the  limita- 
tion of  self,  it  is  not  free.  In  the  physical  process 
and  in  its  conditions,  man  has  no  freedom,  and  it 
is  attained  only  in  the  relation  of  man  with  God. 

It  has  the  energy  of  the  Spirit,  as  spontaneity 
and  originality  are  presumed  in  freedom  and  are 
implied  and  realized  in  personality.  It  is  not 
summed  up  in  negations  :  In  the  last  day,  that 
great  day  of  the  feast,  Jesus  stood  and  cried,  say- 
ing, If  any  man  thirst,  let  him  come  unto  me  and 
drink.  He  that  believeth  in  me,  out  of  his  belly 
shall  flow  rivers  of  'living  water.  But  this  he 
spake  of  the  Spirit,  which  they  that  believe  on  him 
should  receive ;  for  the  Spirit  was  not  as  yet,  be- 
cause that  Jesus  was  not  yet  glorified. 

The  realization  of  the  redemption  of  the  Christ 
\s  in  the  eternal  life.  It  is  unto  life ;  it  is  beyond 
the  power  of  the  transient ;  it  is  not  apprehended 
in  the  ephemeral  and  the  phenomenal ;  it  is  not 
fulfilled  in  relations  that  are  simply  spatial  and 
temporal.  It  is  necessary  that  he,  through  whom 


202  THE   REDEMPTION  OF  THE  WORLD. 

the  redemption  of  man  is  accomplished,  should 
be  the  perfect  man,  for  that  is  the  ideal  of  every 
man  and  of  the  spirit ;  and  that  he  should  be 
one  who  was,  and  who  shall  be  when  the  heavens 
and  earth  are  gone. 

The  death  of  the  Christ  has  given  to  the 
common  life  of  humanity  an  infinite  consequence. 
It  is  death  that  is  common  to  all  men,  and  the 
Christ  has  partaken  of  death  for  every  man.  It  is 
the  perfect  communion  of  God  with  man,  through 
the  suffering  and  death  of  this  earth. 

The  redemption  of  the  Christ  was  not  formal. 
It  was  not  a  formal  consistence  with  certain  con- 
ditions of  an  abstract  scheme,  as  in  the  fulfill- 
ment of  a  contract.  It  was  not  thus  the  conform- 
ance  with  a  plan.  It  was  not  the  work  of  one 
who  came  as  the  substitute  for  another,  and 
whose  righteousness  was  then  made  the  subject 
of  transfer  to  another,  on  conditions  of  faith,  as  in 
a  certain  stipulation.1  It  was  not  an  act  for  the 
illustration  of  certain  ethical  requirements,  and 
thus  designed  to  secure  certain  impressions  as  an 
exhibition,  an  incident  with  certain  spectacular 

1  "  The  doctrine  of  Scripture,  so  far  from  being  the  doctrine  of 
mere  substitution,  is  a  protest  against  that  doctrine ;  it  makes  accu- 
rate provision  for  moral  claims;  it  enforces  conditions  on  the  sub- 
ject of  sacrifice;  it  attributes  a  rational  ground  of  influence  and 
mode  of  operation  to  the  sacrifice."  (Mozley,  University  Sermons 
p.  174.) 


THE  LAW  OF  SACKIFICE.  203 

effects.  It  was  a  spectacle  to  men  and  angels,  but 
of  another  and  infinite  reality. 

The  abstract  schemes  and  systems  of  the  atone- 
ment have  their  postulate  in  the  notion  that, 
while  God  apportions  and  must  apportion  to 
every  instance  and  degree  of  transgression  its 
proper  punishment,  it  is  not  a  subject  of  con- 
cern, whether  the  one  who  pays  this  be  one  who 
transgresses  or  another  who  is  innocent,  provided 
that  the  payment  be  an  equivalent,  and  that  he 
is  under  the  necessity  of  cancelling  the  guilt, 
whenever  the  equivalent  is  tendered  by  any  hand.1 
This  assumes  an  analogy  of  a  crime  and  a  debt. 
It  is  not  righteous. 

The  atonement  was  not  provisional,  as  a  sub- 
sequent arrangement  to  effect  certain  ends,  in  a 
situation  in  which  certain  defects  had  become 
apparent.  It  was  not  simply  the  adoption  of  a 
remedial  system,  in  a  condition  in  which  sin  and 
its  sequences  had  appeared.  It  was  that,  for  it 
was  the  coming  of  one  who  taketh  away  all  our 
infirmities,  and  healeth  all  our  sicknesses,  but  it 
was  infinitely  more  ;  it  was  the  manifestation  of 
that  which  was  in  the  being  of  God,  and  its  end 
was  eternal  life.  It  was  the  will  of  God,  before 
the  foundation  of  the  wo^ld. 

1  "  Judicial  punishment  can  never  be  inflicted  simply  and  solely  as 
a  means  to  promote  a  good  other  than  itself,  whether  that  good  be 
the  benefit  of  the  criminal  or  of  civil  society;  but  it  must  at  all 
times  be  inflicted  on  him,  for  no  other  reason  than  because  he  haf 
acted  criminally."  (Kant,  Werke,  vol.  ix.  p.  180.) 


204  THE   REDEMPTION  OF  THE   WORLD. 

It  is  not  a  transaction  in  the  exchange  of 
equivalents,  in  which  certain  advances  are  made, 
and  certain  results  are  secured  ;  and  there  is  not, 
as  in  a  rate  of  exchange,  the  substitution  of  one 
value  for  another  value.  It  is  communion  and 
not  substitution,  that  is  realized  through  death.1 

It  is  not  the  taking  away  of  the  wrath  of  God 
against  sin.  It  is  not  the  pacification  of  God, 
for  it  is  the  gift  to  man  of  the  peace  of  God. 
It  is  the  satisfaction  of  God  in  the  creation  of 
the  world,  for,  through  the  divine  redemption, 
the  apostle  writes  of  committing  ourselves  unto 
God  as  unto  a  faithful  Creator. 

1  "  Who  died  for  all,  that  they  who  live  should  not  live  unto  them- 
selves, but  unto  him.  We  must  believe  that  this  love  will  mould 
society  according  to  its  law,  nor  suffer  men  to  make  another  law 
for  themselves,  which  is  one  of  selfishness  and  hatred.  In  the 
faith  that  Christ's  constraining  love  is  the  mightiest  power  in  the 
universe,  we  must  be,  think,  act.  The  same  love  must  be  acting 
more  perfectly  on  those  who  have  passed  out  of  our  world.  Our 
relation  to  them  does  not  rest  on  the  strength  of  our  affection  or 
our  memory.  It  is  Christ's  love,  not  ours,  which  binds  them  to 
us.  In  him  they  are  dead,  and  in  him  only  they  have  life."  (Mau- 
rice, Sermons,  vol.  iii.  p.  236.) 

"  Thou  shalt  purge  me  with  hyssop,  and  I  shall  be  clean;  thou 
shalt  wash  me  and  I  shall  be  whiter  than  snow,  was  the  assurance  of 
a  man  upon  whose  conscience  lay  the  burden  of  adultery  aad  mur- 
der. For  these  crimes,  the  sword  was  never  to  depart  from  his 
house.  No  petty  penances,  such  as  confessors  lay  upon  kings,  but 
such  as  God  lays  upon  them  and  their  subjects  equally,  the  loss 
and  rebellion  of  children,  exile,  sorrow  without  and  within,  were 
appointed  for  him.  But  he  himself  had  a  free  spirit;  he  had  dared 
to  seek  God's  righteousness,  to  fly  to  him  from  his  own  evil,  and 
therefore  it  had  not  power  to  hold  him  a  prisoner."  (Maurice,  Ser 
mons,  vol.  i.  p.  93.) 


THE  FAITHFUL  CREATOR.  205 

It  has  not  its  ground  in  the  faith  of  any  man, 
and  not  thus  by  the  faith  of  man  is  salvation, 
but  its  ground  is  in  that  love  which  faith  can  but 
imperfectly  apprehend,  and  hope  can  but  faintly 
forecast.  It  is  still  greater  than  faith  can  discern, 
and  hope  cannot  discover  its  limit.  S.  Paul  says, 
God  commendeth  his  love  toward  us,  in  that,  while 
we  were  yet  sinners,  Christ  died  for  us.  S.  John 
says,  herein  is  love,  not  that  we  loved  God,  but  that 
lie  loved  us. 

In  the  course  of  the  historical  world,  in  the 
lives  of  men  and  of  nations,  there  is  suffering  and 
sacrifice.  It  may  be  inferentially  assumed  that 
there  is  some  law  of  suffering  and  sacrifice.  It 
is  not  solely  the  impulse  of  nature,  but  as  it  pre- 
vails through  the  course  of  the  physical  world,  it 
may  be  taken  up  and  transmuted  in  the  life  of 
the  spirit,  and  penetrated  with  an  ethical  aim. 
It  has  an  ethical  character,  and  there  can  be  no 
ethical  law  in  human  life  of  greater  significance. 
It  is  the  evidence  of  the  greater  love  in  the  rela- 
tions of  men,  greater  love  hath  no  man  than  this, 
that  he  lay  down  his  life  for  his  friend.  The  phase 
of  thought  upon  life,  which  describes  it  as  the 
struggle  for  existence,  recognizes  this  fact  of  suf- 
fering and  in  some  form  of  sacrifice.  But  it  is 
only  in  this  divine  sacrifice  that  these  facts  are 
justified.  It  is  only  in  the  suffering  and  sacrifice 
of  the  Christ  that  the  suffering  and  sacrifice  of 


206  THE  REDEMPTION  OF  THE   WORLD. 

the  world  has  its  true  interpretation.     Ii  is  only 
in  this,  that  they  are  invested  with  a  divine  signifi- 


cance.1 


There  was  in  the  atonement  for  the  world  the 
manifestation  of  God.  It  was  the  will  of  God  in 
its  fulfillment  of  righteousness.  To  him  man  may 
come,  in  the  service  that  is  perfect  freedom,  and 
in  his  election  is  peace  in  the  knowledge  and  love 
of  God,  that  the  world  cannot  give,  and  cannot 
take  away. 

1  "  The  moral  teaching  of  Christ  is  the  expression  of  the  con- 
science of  a  people  who  had  fought  long  and  heroically  for  their 
national  existence.  In  that  terrible  conflict  they  had  learned  the 
supreme  and  overwhelming  importance  of  conduct,  the  weakness  and 
uselessness  of  solitary  and  selfish  efforts,  the  necessity  for  a  man 
who  would  be  a  man,  to  lose  his  poor  single  personality  in  the 
being  of  a  greater  and  nobler  combatant  —  the  nation."  (Clifford, 
Lectures  and  Essays,  vol.  ii.  p.  230.)  These  words  are  the  expr^s- 
sion  of  an  imperishable  truth,  which  the  last  age  in  the  education  of 
the  world  may  learn  as  well  as  the  first  age  in  its  historical  courses. 
But  because  the  nation  has  a  divine  and  eternal  foundation,  it  may 
learn,  through  sacrifice,  the  ground  of  its  unity  and  peace.  And  the 
personality  of  man  is  not  lost  in  it,  but  is  lifted  up  and  ennobled  in 
it;  for  it  has  an  immortal  life;  it  has  given  to  it  the  strength  of  an 
eternal  victory.  In  the  words  of  S.  John  the  Divine,  — and  it  is  no 
mystic  story  for  this  generation,  —  its  power  is  typified  in  the  throne 
of  the  Lamb.  But  if  the  personality  of  man  were  to  be  lost  and  ob- 
literated in  its  life,  —  in  the  coming  of  this  greater  and  nobler  com- 
batant; if  it  were  not  here  and  in  these  relations,  and  through  its  own 
sacrifice  to  have  its  fulfillment ;  — if  it  were  not  in  losing  its  life  to 
find  it,  then  there  could  be  no  words  of  hope  borne  back  to  those  in- 
volved in  this  evolution,  and  the  memory  of  those  who  had  offered 
themselves  should  be  their  mockery,  as  their  names  were  repeated 
over  the  hollow  earth  they  rounded  with  their  graves. 


THE  FAITH  OF  THE  REDEEMER.        207 

It  is  the  righteousness  of  God.  The  Son  of 
God  became  the  Son  of  man,  and  in  his  life  is  the 
fulfillment  of  righteousness.  It  is  in  the  right- 
eousness of  the  Christ,  that  humanity  has  its  vic- 
tory and  its  peace.  Our  love  is  weak  and  fal- 
tering, but  in  him  is  the  eternal  love.  Our  faith 
is  dim  and  confused,  but  his  faith  is  perfect. 
Our  repentance  is  broken,  and  only  imperfectly 
discerns  the  depths  of  variance  and  sin  ;  but  his 
repentance  is  adequate,  and  his  faith  and  his  re- 
pentance are  ours.  We  can  only  say  as  we  come 
to  him,  in  the  communion  with  him  which  is  his 
gift,  Thou  only  art  holy  ;  thou  only  art  the  Lord  ; 
thou  only,  0  Christ,  with  the  Holy  Ghost,  art  most 
high  in  the  glory  of  God  the  Father. 


CHAPTER  X. 

THE    LIFE    OF   THE    SPIRIT. 

THE  life,  which  the  Christ  has  manifested  to  the 
world,  becomes  henceforth  the  life  of  the  spirit.1 

The  Christ  says,  it  is  expedient  for  you  that  1 
go  away  :  for  if  I  go  not  away  the  Comforter  will 
not  come  unto  you  ;  but  if  I  depart  I  will  send  him 
unto  you.  When  he,  the  Spirit  of  truth  is  come,  he 
will  guide  you  into  all  truth :  for  he  shall  not  speak 
of  himself ;  but  whatsoever  he  shall  hear  that  shall 
he  speak.  He  shall  glorify  me :  for  he  shall  receive 
of  mine  and  shall  shew  it  unto  you.  All  things 
that  the  Father  hath  are  mine:  therefore  said  1 
that  he  shall  take  of  mine,  and  shall  shew  it  unto 
you.  These  words  indicate  a  knowledge  of  a  divine 
relationship,  which  is  not  a  sequence  of  the  expe- 
rience of  the  world.  They  are  the  assertion  of 
that  which  was  to  have  its  fulfillment  henceforth 
in  the  life  of  humanity,  the  last,  the  greatest  proph- 
ecy of  humanity. 

1  The  commemoration  of  the  services  of  the  Church  on  Christmas 
and  Easter  has  come  to  have  a  common  recognition,  bat  the  higher 
services  are  those  of  the  Ascension  Day  and  Whitsunday,  the  com- 
memoration of  the  coming  of  the  Spirit,  and  the  conception  which 
may  be  held  of  the  former  services  is  very  deficient  when  they  are 
separated  from  these  which  follow  them. 


THE  COMING  OF  THE  SPIRIT.  209 

Hence  the  judgment  and  the  redemption  of  the 
world,  and  the  life  with  God,  are  realized  in  and 
through  the  life  of  the  spirit. 

Hence  the  relation  to  the  Christ  is  not  an  ex- 
ternal relation,  which  is  sustained  in  a  formal  his- 
torical circumstance,  but  it  is  a  relation  of  and 
in  the  life  of  the  spirit. 

Hence  the  redemption  of  the  world  is  not  sim- 
ply a  deliverance  from  evil  and  its  sequence,  —  a 
course  of  negations,  but  it  is  in  the  coming  of  the 
new  life,  which  is  the  life  of  the  spirit. 

Hence  the  ethical  life  of  man  is  in  the  life  of 
the  spirit,  and  this  alone  is  the  ground  of  a  life 
which  has  elements  that  are  substantial  and  eter- 
nal, in  the  truth  and  freedom  which  man  has  with 
God.  The  life  of  the  spirit  becomes  the  element 
of  the  life  of  righteousness  and  the  life  of  free- 
dom.1 The  righteousness  is  real  which  is  a  spirit- 
ual righteousness.  It  is  not  an  external  consistence 
with  a  formal  command,  as  a  prescript  in  the  con- 
duct of  affairs  ;  it  is  that,  and  further,  it  is  a  con- 

1  The  demands  of  the  masters  in  morals  who  represent  its  latest 
phases  of  thought,  are  very  great;  as  Kant,  who  says,  obey  the  com- 
mand of  reason  within,  —  this  you  are  bound  to  do;  or  Bentham, 
who  says,  do  that  which  shall  be  for  the  greatest  good  of  the  great- 
est number.  They  lay  heavy  burdens  upon  the  unequal  shoulders 
of  men.  Mr.  Clifford  says,  thou  shalt  not  formulize.  S.  Paul  says, 
the  law  was  a  scJwolmaster.  But  it  is  only  as  man  recognizes  the 
Spirit  given  to  each  and  to  all  men,  the  spirit  of  truth  and  love,  it 
is  only  in  the  life  of  the  spirit  that  these  formulas  become  elements 
of  strength;  then  they  are  not  a  weight  to  bear;  they  are  highway! 
for  our  advancement;  they  are  the  stones  of  the  living  temple. 


210  THE   LIFE    OF  THE   SPIRIT. 

formance  that  is  in  the  life  of  the  spirit.  It  is  the 
fulfillment  of  the  law,  in  the  life  and  freedom  of 
the  spirit.  It  is  not  freedom  from  God,  which 
has  its  assertion  and  realization  in  righteousness ; 
it  is  the  freedom  of  God.  The  words  have  increas- 
ingly their  verification,  where  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord 
is,  there  is  liberty. 

Hence  the  life  of  man  is  brought  into  imme- 
diate relation,  in  its  ground  and  continuance,  with 
the  life  of  God.  It  is  not  a  relation  through  ex- 
ternal conditions,  to  find  its  source  and  determina- 
tion in  them  ;  it  is  in  the  life  of  the  spirit. 

Hence  the  relation  to  the  Christ  is  realized  in 
the  life  of  the  spirit.  It  is  not  a  relation  to  Jesus 
of  Nazareth,  in  the  circumstantial  condition  which 
is  comprised  in  certain  contiguous  relations.  It 
may  be  a  source  of  weakness,  as  the  imagination 
occupies  itself  with  this  circumstance.  The  inci- 
dent of  this  individual  life  is  transient,  as  every 
incident  of  time,  and  subject  to  its  conditions. 
The  Christ  says  to  those  whom  he  sends  forth  to 
all  nations  :  in  the  name  of  the  Father,  and  the  Son, 
and  the  Holy  Ghost,  lo  I  am  with  you  always,  even 
unto  the  end  of  the  world. 

The  words  of  the  Christ  have  not  their  ground 
in  an  external  authority.  The  signature  of  their 
authority  is  not  in  the  instrument  in  which  they 
appear,  but  their  verification  is  to  the  spirit. 
Their  justification  is  to  the  conscience  and  the 


THE   COMING  OF  THE   SPIRIT.  211 

consciousness  of  men.  It  is,  verily,  verily  I  say 
unto  you.  The  Christ  says,  my  words,  they  are 
spirit  and  they  are  life.  Thus  the  message  that 
was  given  to  the  churches  was  always  with  a 
universal  expression,  he  that  hath  an  ear  let  him 
hear  what  the  Spirit  saith  unto  the  churches. 

The  real  life  of  humanity  becomes  henceforth 
the  life  of  the  spirit.  The  Christ  says,  it  is  better 
for  you  that  I  go  away  ;  the  Spirit  shall  come,  thai 
will  guide  you  into  all  truth.  There  are  in  these 
days  many  voices  with  counsel  for  men; — let  us 
be  satisfied  with  the  limitations  of  a  physical 
process  which  rejects  all  reference  to  another  than 
a  physical  origin  and  end  for  the  whole  being 
of  man,  and  accept  only  its  course  of  necessity, 
and  allow  only  the  knowledge  which  is  the  result 
of  the  observation  and  investigation  of  physical 
organization  and  relations ;  or  come  together  and 
construct  a  new  religion  that  may  deepen  and 
widen  the  religious  life  ;  or  acknowledge  with  rev- 
erence the  unknown,  with  whatever  predicates  may 
be  attached  to  it,  to  form  from  thence  a  religion ; 
or  contemplate  the  universum ;  or  reproduce  a  cer- 
tain selection  from  past  ages,  as  that  of  the  Homeric 
cycle,  or  the  age  of  Pericles  in  Greece,  or  the  Me- 
diaeval times ;  —  but  these,  while  words  of  excel- 
lent counsel,  and  commending  the  selection  of  an 
excellent  copy  for  imitation,  have  no  elements  of 
strength  or  freedom.  They  become  the  evidence 


212  THE  LIFE   OF  THE  SPIRIT 

of  our  own  poverty  and  vacancy,  and  the  absence 
of  our  own  ideal.  These  pageants  have  an  attrac- 
tion for  the  eye,  and  we  might  act  our  parts  well 
enough  in  them,  and  accumulate  their  theatrical 
properties,  and  hold  the  world  as  our  stage  for 
these  mimic  shows.  But  there  would  be  no  power 
in  them,  and  we  inherit  even,  from  these  ages, 
more  than  the  attractions  of  the  eye.  The  life 
of  the  spirit  is  alone  the  condition  of  strength  and 
freedom.  This  alone  sustains  man  in  his  self-deter- 
mination, toward  the  fulfillment  of  his  own  ideal. 
This  alone  lifts  him  above  the  external.  This 
alone  gives  to  man  the  real  development,  which 
apart  from  it  may  be  traced  only  in  the  continu- 
ance of  a  type,  that  in  a  succession  of  conditions 
is  subject  to  variations  consequent  upon  those  con- 
ditions, and  is  resolved  in  its  termination  into  the 
attrition  of  molecular  forces. 

The  Christ  came,  in  the  fullness  of  time.  When 
S.  John  writes,  in  the  beginning  was  the  Word,  the 
thought  of  man  is  not  carried  back  through  a 
mere  numeration,  or  a  series  in  numeration,  and 
it  is  not  referred  to  a  merely  vacant  conception  of 
being.  In  the  process  of  logic,  through  finite  con- 
ditions, the  notion  of  being  is  an  empty  phase  of 
thought,  and  is  resolved  through  a  logical  ne- 
cessity into  mere  nothingness ;  but  the  notion  of 
being  derived  from  finite  conditions,  is  not  to  be 
applied  to  the  being  of  God.  The  expression  of 


THE  LAW  OF   THE   SPIRIT.  213 

the  apostle  carries  the  thought  back  to  One  who 
was  in  the  beginning,  and  whose  manifestation  was 
in  the  fullness  of  time,  and  on  whom  the  thought 
of  man  may  rest.  There  were  thence,  through  the 
historical  life  of  the  world,  the  courses  in  the  proc- 
ess of  time  which  moved  in  and  toward  the  ad- 
vent of  the  Christ,  and  the  procession  of  the  Holy 
Spirit. 

The  life  of  the  spirit  is  not,  then,  subject  to  the 
law  of  necessity ;  it  does  not  begin  in  the  line  of 
physical  descent,  nor  terminate  with  the  cessation 
of  physical  forms.  The  Christ  says,  that  which  is 
born  of  the  flesh  is  flesh  ;  and  that  which  is  born 
of  the  Spirit  is  spirit.  S.  Paul  says,  flesh  and 
blood  cannot  inherit  the  kingdom  of  God ;  neither 
doth  corruption  inherit  incorruption. 

There  is  a  line  of  evolution  through  physical 
forms,  and  there  is  also  the  procession  of  the  Spirit : 
S.  Paul  says,  that  was  not  first  which  is  spirit- 
ual, but  that  which  is  physical;  and  afterward 
that  which  is  spiritual.  The  first  man  is  of  the 
earth,  earthy :  the  second  man  is  the  Lord  from 
heaven. 

The  words  which  henceforth  become  the  new 
testament,  and  are  to  bear  the  witness  of  the  life 
given  for  the  world,  are  testamentary  vof  an  incor- 
ruptible inheritance  :  /  will  put  my  law  in  their 
inward  parts,  and  write  it  in  their  hearts  ;  and 
will  be  their  God,  and  they  shall  be  my  people , 


214  THE  LIFE   OF  THE   SPIRIT. 

and  they  shall  teach  no  more  every  man  his 
brother,  and  every  man  his  neighbor,  saying, 
Know  the  Lord:  for  they  shall  all  know  me, 
from  the  least  of  them  unto  the  greatest  of  them, 
saith  the  Lord  ;  for  I  will  forgive  their  iniquity, 
and  I  will  remember  their  sin  no  more.  The 
words  are  verified,  I  will  pour  out  my  spirit  upon 
all  flesh.  It  is  in  man  that  the  spirit  has  its  dwell- 
ing. Man  is  the  tabernacle.  The  body  becomes 
the  temple  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  The  words  which 
represent  the  presence  of  the  Spirit  with  man  do 
not  refer  to  a  remote  life.  They  are  not  the 
suggestion  of  some  pale  illusion,  or  some  vague 
emotion.  They  speak  of  walking  and  of  dwell- 
ing in  the  spirit. 

The  Christ,  in  his  own  life,  manifested  the  life  of 
the  spirit.  In  his  own  life  there  was  the  presence 
and  the  inspiration  of  the  spirit ;  the  Spirit  de- 
scended upon  him.  It  is  the  witness  to  the  one- 
ness of  his  life,  who  came  from  the  Father,  with 
the  life  of  humanity.  It  is  the  evidence  of  the 
presence  of  the  Spirit  with  the  Son  of  man.  The 
Spirit  which  was  with  the  Christ  in  the  beginning 
of  his  work  on  the  earth  was  with  him  until  the 
close.  The  Christ,  in  the  closing  events  of  his  life, 
was  led  by  the  spirit ;  he  through  the  eternal  Spirit 
offered  himself. 

The  life  of  the  spirit  is  not  simply  the.  indefinite 
life ;  —  it  is  the  determinate  life.  It  is  not  simply 
the  life  which  before  was  absent ;  but  its  precedent 


THE  WOKD  OF  GOD.  215 

is  in  the  life  of  the  Christ,  in  the  realization  of 
the  truth,  and  the  fulfillment  of  righteousness  in 
the  life  of  humanity. 

There  is  knowledge,  but  there  is  yet  a  wider 
knowledge  open  and  opening  unto  men.  There  is 
no  limit  set  for  thought.  The  Christ  says,  when 
the  Spirit  is  come,  he  will  guide  you  into  all  truth. 

There  are  many  observances,  customs,  laws,  in- 
stitutions, but  there  are  none  that  are  to  impose 
upon  the  life  of  the  spirit.  They  are  to  become 
the  evidence  of  it ;  they  are  to  be  formed  in 
it.  Their  verification  is  to  be  unto  the  spirit. 
The  value  and  measure  of  all  forms  is  as  they 
express  and  embody  the  life  of  the  spirit.  The 
law  of  all  forms  is  in  the  words,  the  sabbath  was 
made  for  man,  and  not  man  for  the  sabbath. 

The  Christ,  the  Word  of  God,  manifests,  in  the 
spirit,  that  which  was  from  the  beginning :  in 
the  beginning  icas  the  Word,  and  the  Word  was 
with  God,  and  the  Word  was  God.  The  Word  of 
God  in  the  life  of  the  spirit  may  go  forth  in 
human  life,  and  in  the  events  which  become  form- 
ative in  human  history.  The  Word  of  God  is  the 
informing  power  of  the  revelation  of  God  in  the 
finite  world.  The  Word  of  God  is  not,  by  any 
figure,  to  be  identified  with  a  book,  or  a  temple, 
or  a  minster,  or  a  shrine  ;  nor  with  one  through 
whom,  in  books  or  temples,  a  message  is  brought 
to  men  :  S.  John  says,  I  fell  down  at  his  feet  to 


216  THE  LIFE   OF  THE   SPIRIT. 

worship  the  angel ; .  and  he  said  unto  me,  See  thou 
do  it  not ;  I  am  thy  fellow-servant  and  of  thy 
brethren :  worship  God. 

The  life  of  the  spirit  has  its  witness  to  the 
world  in  the  Church. 

The  Church  has  an  organic  unity  and  life. 

The  Church  is  the  company  of  all  faithful 
people. 

The  Church  has  a  form  and  order,  in  the  ful- 
fillment of  the  life  of  the  spirit,  and  thence  in 
the  freedom  of  the  spirit,  in  the  historical  courses 
of  the  world,  and  in  consistence,  in  their  divine 
institution,  with  the  organic  being  and  develop- 
ment of  the  family  and  the  nation  in  the  life  of 
humanity.1 

The  Church  is  the  witness  to  the  life  of  the 
spirit  in  humanity.  It  is  not  the  source  of  the 
life  of  the  spirit,  but  the  witness  of  it.  The  Spirit 
is  not  the  gift  of  the  church,  but  the  church  of 
the  Spirit.  The  words  of  faith  which  cannot  be 
transposed  are,  /  believe  in  the  Holy  Ghost;  in 
the  holy  catholic  Church. 

The  Church  is  the  witness  to  the  redemption 
of  the  world.  It  is  not  in  it  alone  that  the  ne- 
cessity of  the  redemption  is  apparent,  and  it  is 
not  itself  the  object  and  end  of  the  redemption, 

1  "  That  was  the  beginning  of  a  society  which  could  be  nothing 
but  universal,  because  it  stood  in  the  name  of  the  Son  of  God  and 
Son  of  man."  (Maurice,  Sermons,  vol.  i.  p.  9.) 


THE  CHTTKCH.  217 

but  it  is  the  witness  to  the  redemption  of  the 
world.  It  shows  forth  the  divine  sacrifice,  the 
Lamb  of  God  who  taketh  away  the  sins  of  the 
world. 

The  Church  is  the  witness  to  the  inspiration  of 
the  spirit.  The  life  of  the  Church  is  in  the  pres- 
ence of  the  spirit.  It  is  the  evidence  and  rec- 
ognition, —  the  response  in  the  life  of  humanity 
to  the  eternal  Spirit,  the  communion  of  the 
spirit,  in  which  the  life  of  man  has  its  eternal 
foundation  and  its  unity  and  its  peace.1 

The  Church  is  the  witness  to  the  being  and 
continuance  of  the  Christ  in  the  world.  It  is 
built  upon  the  person  of  the  Christ,  and  is  formed 
in  relations  with  him.  It  is  not  founded  upon 
abstractions.  It  does  not  rest  upon  a  proposition 
or  a  system  of  propositions  in  the  forms  of 
thought.  S.  Paul  writes  of  its  communion  as  built 
upon  the  foundation  of  the  apostles  and  prophets, 
Jesus  Christ  himself  being  the  chief  corner  stone, 
in  whom  ye  also  are  builded  together  for  an  habit- 
ation of  God  through  the  Spirit. 

The  Church  is  the  witness  to  the  life  and  the 
realization  of  the  truth  in  the  world.  It  is  not 

1  "  The  Christ  chooses  the  Church  to  be  the  witness  of  his  love 
to  mankind.  The  sect  chooses  Christ,  'because  it  is  convinced  that 
his  doctrine  is  better  than  that  of  the  founders  of  other  religions; 
and  then  goes  on  to  choose  Cephas,  or  Paul,  or  Apollos,  as  hav- 
ing the  most  refined  or  satisfactory  form  of  that  doctrine.  So  the 
person  of  Christ  becomes  lost  in  certain  opinions  which  the  sects 
have  taken  up  respecting  him."  (Maurice,  Sermons,  vol.  iv  p.  9.J 


218  THE  LIFE  OF  THE  SPIRIT. 

alone  the  encouragement  of  a  disposition  toward 
the  truth,  nor  the  evidence  of  the  recognition  of 
the  truth ;  it  is  that,  but  it  is  the  testament  of 
the  realization  of  the  truth  in  the  world.  It  is  to 
make  manifest  its  light  to  the  world.  An  apostle 
writes  of  the  Church  as  the  pillar  and  ground  of 
the  truth ;  and  again,  of  its  life  in  the  Christ,  S. 
Paul  says,  it  is  his  body,  the  fullness  of  him  that 
filleth  all  in  all. 

The  holy  catholic  Church  is  the  communion  of 
saints.  The  life  of  the  spirit  is  the  life  of  com- 
munion with  God.  It  is  not  a  communion  which 
is  measured  by  finite  limitations,  and  it  is  not  dis- 
tant in  place  nor  remote  in  time.  But  the  world 
is  slow  to  receive  this,  and  is  concerned  writh  its 
own  nothingness  and  emptiness.  This  commun- 
ion is  transposed ;  or  is  held  as  the  association 
of  an  adjourned  company.  It  is  foisted  into  the 
future,  in  that  conception  in  which  the  things  not 
seen  are  still  apprehended  as  some  future  tempo- 
rality, and  the  present  is  occupied  only  with  in- 
definite notions  among  its  pure  negations.  This 
communion,  by  a  sheer  lift,  is  carried  into  another 
world,  which  is  then  only  another  world,  in  the  suc- 
cession to  this  world.  The  vague  aspiration  which 
wearies  of  its  own  vacancy,  and  the  imagination 
which  lingers  among  the  things  which  are  seen, 
the  things  of  earth  and  time,  brings  to  this  its 
own  detachments.  The  writer  of  the  Epistle  to 
the  Hebrews  says,  ye  are  come  unto  this  com- 


THE  SCRIPTURES.  210 

munion.  It  is  not  ye  shall  come  to  this  commun- 
ion. That  is  the  revision  of  the  skepticism  of 
the  world.  The  argument  of  the  writer  of  the 
epistle  is  to  show  that  the  Christ  has  rent  asun- 
der the  veil  which  separates  the  earth  from  the 
heavens,  and  those  who  are  in  the  world  from 
those  who  have  left  it.  It  is  not  a  communion 
to  which  men  are  told  that  they  shall  come,  nor 
can  the  imagination  pass  beyond  these  words ;  ye 
are  come  unto  the  city  of  the  living  God,  and  to 
an  innumerable  company  of  angels,  to  the  general 
assembly  and  church  of  the  first-born,  which  are 
written  in  heaven,  and  to  God  the  Judge  of  all, 
and  to  the  spirits  of  just  men  made  perfect. 
These  words  embrace  the  whole  realization  of  that 
historical  life  ;  ye  are  come  unto  Mount  Zion,  and 
unto  the  heavenly  Jerusalem,  and  unto  Jesus,  the 
Mediator  of  the  new  covenant. 

The  Church  has  preserved  the  writings  called 
the  Old  and  the  New  Testament.  This  word  has 
itself  a  significant  value  as  indicating  their  testa- 
mentary character.  The  Christ  says  of  the  writ- 
ings of  the  Old  Testament,  they  are  they  which 
testify  of  me. 

The  Church  has  not  preserved  the  original  doc- 
uments or  instruments  of  these  writings.  It  has 
not  preserved  any  manuscript  of  them,  of  the  first 
or  second  or  third  century.  It  has  not  preserved 
the  external  evidence,  in  connection  with  them, 


220  THE    LIFE  OF  THE   SPIRIT. 

in  verification  of  their  contemporary  transcrip- 
tion. It  has  not  preserved  all  of  them  in  a  per- 
fect form,  and  the  only  copies  of  somo  of  them, 
now  known  to  exist,  are  incomplete  ;  or  appear  as 
a  fragment,  as  the  closing  pages  of  the  Gospel  of 
S.  Mark.  It  has  not  preserved  the  verification  of 
the  individual  authorship  of  some  of  them,  and 
there  may  be  no  longer  a  verification  of  the  name 
of  the  writer ;  so  that  it  is  indifferent  what  name, 
if  any,  may  be  attached  to  them,  —  as  the  Epistle 
to  the  Hebrews.  It  has  not  preserved  these  writ- 
ings from  interpolations,  which  in  some  instances 
may  certainly,  and  in  some  conjee turally  appear, 
with  the  critical  study  and  inquiry  of  scholars,  in 
comparison  of  their  variations,  as  the  narrative  of 
the  woman  taken  in  adultery,  or  the  description  of 
the  three  witnesses  in  the  Epistle  of  S.  John  •  while 
yet  the  manuscripts  in  some  instances,  as  the  Gos- 
pel of  S,  Luke,  although  not  without  various  read- 
ings, are  jet  of  very  considerable  scriptory  excel- 
lence. 

The  Church  has  read,  indifferently  with  the 
original,  an  excellent  translation  :  as,  for  instance, 
the  translation  into  the  Latin  of  S.  Jerome,  or  the 
translation  into  the  Gothic  of  Ulfilas,  or  the  trans- 
lation into  the  English  of  Wicliffe,  or  of  the  com- 
pany of  scholars  of  the  sixteenth  century.  The 
writings  of  the  Old  Testament,  when  they  are  re- 
ferred to  by  writers  of  the  New  Testament,  are 
with  citations  from  the  recent  and  more  common 


THE   SCRIPTURES.  221 

version,  in  the  translation  of  scholars  in  Alexan- 
dria, called  the  Septuagint.  These  citations  are 
usually  given  in  an  illustrative  way, 
difference  to  literary  precision. 

The  Church  has  held  the  verification 
scriptures  in  the  life  of  the  spirit.  It  i 
verification  as  words  that  are  spirit  and 
the  canon  which  alone  the  Christ  has  given. 
their  verification  to  the  conscience  and  the  con- 
sciousness of  men.  It  is  through  their  recogni- 
tion, in  the  life  of  the  spirit  in  humanity,  in  the 
development  through  which  the  Word  of  God  re- 
veals itself  in  righteousness  and  judgment  unto 
men,  that  the  Christ  says,  heaven  and  earth  may 
pass  away,  but  my  words  shall  not  pass  away. 

The  Bible,  which  is  the  simplest  phrase  of  lit- 
erature, the  synonym  of  the  Book,  is  the  term 
which  comprehensively  describes  these  writings. 

The  Bible  is  a  book  written  in  literal  forms; 
subject  to  the  ordinary  rules  of  construction,  as 
defined  in  the  science  of  grammar. 

The  Bible  is  a  book  written  in  languages,  as  the 
Hebraic,  the  Chaldaic,  the  Greek,  or  Grseco- 
Hebraic ;  subject  to  the  ordinary  rules  of  deriva- 
tion and  distinction,  as  defined  in  the  science  of 
comparative  philology. 

The  Bible  is  a  book  written  in  manuscripts; 
which  require  in  their  transcription  and  authenti- 
cation the  critical  study  which  belongs  to  the  sci- 
ence, which,  in  comparing,  for  instance,  the  uncial 


222  THE  LIFE  OF  THE   SPIKIT. 

with  other  styles,  is  the  science  which  deals  with 
scrip tory  forms. 

The  Bible  is  a  book  which  has  been  subject  to 
the  mutations  of  literature.  It  is  written  in  man- 
uscripts of  unequal  value,  no  one  of  which  is  en- 
tirely perfect  in  itself,  so  as  to  displace  all  others, 
and  none  are  free  from  obscure  or  various  read- 
ings. It  has  suffered  simply  the  mutations  of  lit- 
erature, and  has  had  no  exemption  from  them. 

It  embraces  the  most  varied  forms  of  litera- 
ture ;  as  genealogies,  laws,  histories,  records  of 
legislative  and  judicial  procedure,  methods  of  san- 
itary, civil,  and  military  administration.  There  is 
legend  and  myth ;  there  are  various  forms  of 
poetry  ;  the  ode,  as  in  the  antiphone  of  Moses  and 
Miriam ;  the  drama,  as  in  the  Book  of  Job ;  the 
idyl,  as  in  the  Song  of  Solomon ;  the  lyric,  as  in 
the  book  of  the  Psalms,  and  the  opening  pages  of 
the  Gospel  of  S.  Luke ;  and  in  the  writings  of  S. 
Paul,  citations  from  the  Greek  comedy,  as  from 
Menander. 

These  scriptures  embraced,  in  substance,  all  the 
literature  that  the  ancient  Hebrew  people  pos- 
sessed. Their  productions  in  art  and  music  always 
remained  rude  and  simple,  and  in  architecture 
they  were  the  common  adaptations  of  a  primitive 
mode  of  life,  or  often  the  reproductions  of  forms 
copied  from  Egypt,  or  imported  from  Phoenicia. 

There  are  traces  in  these  writings  of  the  races, 
3ountries,  and  ages  in  which  they  appeared,  and  of 


THE  SCRIPTURES.  223 

climatic  conditions,  with  respect  to  languages  and 
customs  and  laws.  There  is  a  popular  element, 
as  in  the  stories  of  Samson  and  Ruth ;  and  there 
is  also  a  priestly  and  a  kingly  element,  as  in  the 
books  of  the  Chronicles  and  Kings.  In  some  books 
there  are  the  traces  of  reflective  phases  of  thought, 
as  in  the  book  of  Ecclesiastes ;  and  in  some  there 
are  traces  of  Asiatic  forms  and  Asiatic  institutions. 
These  scriptures  were  written  by  various  writ- 
ers in  various  ages,  and  bear  the  note  and  accent 
of  the  individuality  of  these  writers  in  their  modes 
of  expression.  If  it  needs  to  be  said,  the  literary 
forms  of  the  older  parts  rise  often  to  great  dignity 
of  expression,  as  the  later  chapters  of  Isaiah  and 
the  books  of  Hosea  and  Job;  and  they  have,  in 
this  quality,  a  comparative  excellence  in  the  liter- 
ature of  the  world.  There  is  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment, not  an  indifference  to  literary  form,  but  no 
distinction  of  literary  form.  These  writings  are 
simply  narrative,  in  a  biographical  arrangement, 
or  in  the  style  of  letters  that  are  few  and  direct, 
and  very  unequal  in  their  expression.  There  is  a 
historical  narrative  of  a  discursive  character,  ap- 
parently embracing  the  work  of  various  writers. 
The  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  has  a  singular  finish, 
with  an  antithetic  expression,  and  an  elaborate 
detail  of  historical  portraiture  that  indicates  the 
culture  of  the  writer  in  schools  of  rhetoric  in  his 
age.  The  evangel  of  S.  Luke  is  commended  for 
the  diligence  and  thoroughness  of  its  research 


224  THE  LIFE  OF  THE  SPIRIT. 

The  writings  of  S.  Paul,  in  the  epistles,  which 
may  be  distinctively  called  catholic,  indicate  more 
plainly  the  modifications  to  which  the  Greek  lan- 
guage was  subject  when  it  became  the  instrument 
for  the  expression  of  Hebrew  forms  of  thought ; 
and  they  indicate  also,  in  their  illustrative  expres- 
sion, the  influence  of  a  knowledge  of  Roman  law 
in  an  age  of  great  Roman  lawyers.  But  the  writ- 
ings of  S.  Paul  have  no  literary  form  to  commend 
them,  —  to  bring  them  into  comparison,  in  Greek 
with  the  consummate  beauty  of  phrase  in  ^Eschy- 
lus,  or  the  repose  in  the  style  of  Plato,  or  the  sus- 
tained strength  of  the  masterful  style  of  Aristotle. 
There  is  often,  from  language  of  great  elevation,  a 
lapse  to  some  digressive  phrase ;  as,  for  an  ex- 
treme instance,  in  the  thirty-third  verse  of  the 
fifteenth  chapter  of  the  first  epistle  to  the  Corin- 
thians, which  drops  and  moves  on  with  a  quota- 
tion from  the  Greek  comedy.  They  lack  the  form 
which  belongs  to  the  great  hymns  of  the  Yedas, 
and  the  constructive  unity  and  consonance  with  a 
formal  system,  which  belongs  to  the  Koran.  The 
Koran  is  also  better  preserved,  and  has  suffered 
less  in  transcription,  with  proportionately  fewer 
obscure  or  various  readings.  The  style  has  no 
distinctive  quality  ;  but  they  who,  in  common  parl- 
ance with  religious  society,  speak  of  their  beauti- 
ful liturgy,  suggest  a  comparison  with  the  hymns 
of  the  Vedas ;  and  they  who  write  of  the  poetry 
of  the  Bible  must  draw  their  parallel  with  JEschy- 


THE  SCRIPTURES.  225 

lus  and  Shakespeare,  and  the  masters  of  the  lit- 
erary art  to  which  they  invite  attention. 

The  Bible  has  a  unity  which  is  deeper  than  any 
structural  form,  however  various  and  complete. 
This  prevails  with  a  continuous  and  continually 
increasing  manifestation  through  the  whole.  It 
is  not  merely  the  unity  which  appears  in  the  lit- 
erature of  a  people,  as  the  Latin  or  the  English  lit- 
erature ;  it  is  that,  but  it  is  more  and  other  than 
that.  It  is  not  merely  the  unity  which  attaches 
to  the  continuous  history,  the  institutions,  laws, 
customs,  wars  of  a  people  ;  it  is  that,  but  it  is  more 
and  other  than  that. 

The  Bible  is  the  record  of  the  revelation  of  God. 
It  is  the  record  of  a  revelation  of  God  in  man 
and  to  the  world.1  It  is  testamentary  to  the  rev- 
elation of  God  to  and  through  the  world.  This 
revelation,  and  not  a  literature  nor  a  body  of  tra- 
ditions, is  the  ground  of  the  unity  which  it  dis- 
covers. It  is  the  record  of  the  revelation  of  God 

1  The  Church  has  no  theory,  it  will  have  none,  of  the  inspiration 
of  books.  A  theory  may  be  in  the  way  of  recognizing  the  facts. 
The  words  of  the  Church  are,  "  /  believe  in  the  Holy  Ghost,  the  Lord 
and  Giver  of  Life,  who  spake  by  the  prophets.  It  is  an  inspiration  of 
men.  The  Bible  speaks,  as  the  proverb  of  the  Talmud  is,  "in  the 
tongue  of  the  sons  of  men." 

"  The  maxim  of  the  whole  book  is  that  God  is  the  educator  of 
that  {.eople  and  of  every  people,  that  all  circumstances  are  his  in- 
struments; that  all  events  are  assertions  of  his  presence;  that 
whatever  happens  to  men  is  a  means  of  showing  to  them  his  right- 
eousness, and  of  moulding  them  to  his  image.  (Maurice,  Sermons, 
vol.  i.  p.  34.) 


226  THE  LIFE   OF  THE  SPIRIT. 

in  his  relation  with  humanity ;  in  the  fulfillment 
of  his  eternal  purpose,  which  was  before  the  found- 
ation of  the  world  ;  in  the  righteousness  in  which 
he  manifests  his  own  being,  and  in  the  life  which 
he  has  given  for  the  world.  It  is  of  the  coming 
of  his  kingdom,  in  which  the  kingdoms  of  this 
world  become  the  kingdoms  of  the  Christ.  It  is 
of  a  revelation  in  an  order  in  the  world  of  the 
family  and  the  nation.  It  is  of  a  revelation  of 
and  in  the  Christ. 

The  sacraments  of  the  Church  are  the  witness 
to  the  will  of  God  in  its  realization  on  this  earth, 
and  to  the  coming  of  the  new  life,  the  life  of  the 
spirit  in  the  world.  They  are  the  witness  to  the 
real  presence  of  the  Christ  with  humanity,  which 
he  has  redeemed. 

The  baptism  is  the  regeneration  of  humanity  in 
the  coming  of  the  spirit.  It  is  the  declaration  of 
the  true  and  eternal  life  of  man.  The  holy  com- 
munion is  the  manifestation  of  the  perfect  and 
finished  sacrifice,  in  which  alone  there  is  the  inter- 
pretation of  the  sacrifice  and  death  of  this  earth. 
The  sacraments  compass  the  birth  and  death  of 
man,  in  their  eternal  significance. 

The  sacraments  become  the  evidence  of  the  sa- 
credness  of  the  common  life  of  humanity.  They 
take  up  the  types  of  nature  in  its  own  life.  This 
water  is  the  symbol  of  purity  ;  this  bread  and 
wine  are  the  symbols  of  the  strength  and  joy  of 


THE   SACKAMENTS.  227 

man.  They  are  the  common  elements  of  life. 
They  are  the  witness  of  the  presence  of  Him  in 
the  life  of  humanity,  in  whom  the  worship  of 
the  visible  is  overcome  and  destroyed.  They 
bring  their  consecration  to  the  family  and  the  na- 
tion. This  baptism  is  given  to  children  of  every 
tribe  and  race ;  as  the  sign  of  their  common  rela- 
tion with  Him,  who  hath  broken  down  the  wall  of 
partition,  to  make  in  himself  of  twain  one  new 
man.  It  is  given  to  children  in  their  unconscious 
existence,  as  the  evidence  that  the  least  and  low- 
liest in  this  existence,  is  not  separated  from  the 
Christ,  but  becomes  a  partaker  in  his  redemption. 
These  elements,  —  this  bread  and  wine, —  are  the 
evidence  that  the  daily  life,  the  common  life  of 
this  earth,  may  be  transmuted.  It  is  transmuted 
in  union  with  him  who  died  for  the  world. 

The  sacrament  of  the  holy  communion  is  not 
simply  the  memorial  of  a  distant  event,  that  is 
separated  from  us  by  tracts  of  time ;  and  yet  it 
has  the  strength  and  consolation  of  a  sacred  mem- 
ory, as  it  testifies  of  a  past  that  is  glorified,  and  of 
the  presence  of  Him  in  whom  the  past  and  the 
future  are  one. 

The  sacrament  is  not  the  setting  forth  of  a 
sacrifice  that  requires  to  be  perfected.  It  is  the 
manifestation  of  the  full,  perfect,  and  sufficient 
sacrifice,  which  Christ  made  upon  the  cross  for  the 
sin  of  the  whole  world  ;  but  man  may  be  made  the 
partaker  in  this  life,  —  the  life  that  was  given  foi 
the  world. 


228  THE   LIFE   OF  THE   SPIRIT. 

The  sacrament  is  the  witness  of  that  communion 
in  which  the  limits  of  time  and  space,  and  the 
separations  of  death  are  overcome.  It  is  with  an 
unseen  host  •  it  is  with  angels  and  archangels  and 
all  the  company  of  heaven.  The  sacrifice  has  been 
made  once  for  all,  but  it  is  the  ground  of  an  eter- 
nal union.  It  has  been  made  that  men  may  be 
united  with  Him  who  has  passed  through  death, 
who  has  entered  within  the  veil,  and  who  is  pre- 
senting his  finished  sacrifice  continually  before  the 
Father.  It  becomes  the  testament  of  a  perpetu- 
ally renewed  life.  This  sacrifice  the  Church  com- 
memorates, and  whatever  theories  we  may  devise, 
whatever  forms  and  prescriptions  of  ritual  we  may 
observe,  we  cannot  invest  it  with  a  character  be- 
yond that  which  it  has  in  the  words  of  S.  Paul : 
as  often  as  ye  eat  this  bread,  and  drink  this  cup, 
ye  do  shew  the  Lord's  death  till  he  come.  It  is 
this  alone,  which  gives  its  eternal  significance  to 
the  death  of  every  man,  until  he  come.  It  bears 
us  on  toward  the  tim?  when  all  the  revelations 
and  the  sacrament?  of  God  shall  close  in  the  com- 
ing world,  the  new  heavens  and  new  earth,  wherein 
dwelleth,  righteousness.  The  Church  commemo- 
rates, therefore,  with  faith  and  hope,  the  one  pre- 
vailing sacrifice,  that  its  fulfillment  may  be  .in 
Him,  beyond  whose  love  there  is  no  height,  be- 
neath whose  love  there  is  no  depth. 

The  sacrament  becomes  the  witness  of  an  eter- 
nal life.  It  testifies  of  an  eternal  communion. 


THE   SACRAMENTS.  229 

There  is  no  symbol  of  union,  in  the  life  of  hu- 
manity on  this  earth,  that  does  not  lend  to  it  its 
significance.  In  the  mystic  figure  of  S.  John, 
it  is  the  ring  and  vesture  of  the  bride ;  it  is  the 
marriage  supper  of  the  Lamb.  It  is  the  invitation 
of  heaven ;  Behold,  I  stand  at  the  door  and 
knock:  if  any  man  hear  my  voice,  and  open  the 
door,  I  ivill  come  in  to  him,  and  will  sup  with  him, 
and  he  with  me.  This  is  the  simplest  language, 
and  blends  with  human  associations.  It  denotes 
the  fullest  intercourse  with  Him  who  was  alone  on 
this  earth  and  suffered  its  necessities,  with  Him 
who  is  with  the  hosts  of  heaven. 

The  sacraments  become  the  witness  of  the  char- 
acter and  end  of  the  worship  of  the  Church.  They 
set  forth  the  object  of  worship,  —  the  Will  whose 
manifestation  is  in  the  perfect  love,  from  whom 
sacrifice  proceeds,  and  to  whom  it  is  given,  and 
with  whom  there  is  eternal  life  and  communion. 
It  is  the  revelation  through  worship,  of  God  the 
Father  and  the  Son  and  the  Holy  Ghost,  with 
whom  we  may  become  one  in  the  life  that  is  eter- 
nal. It  is  from  the  Father  that  the  sacrifice  pro- 
ceeds, in  the  manifestation  of  the  will  of  the  Father. 
The  Christ  said,  he  that  hath  seen  me  hath  seen  the 
Father.  The  Church,  in  one  of  the  greater  ages 
of  its  theological  thought  and  life,  distinctively 
called  S.  John,  the  Divine ;  and  if,  in  the  theology 
of  S.  John,  there  is  the  justification  of  this  distinc- 
tion, it  is  in  the  record  of  the  words  that  por- 


230  THE  LIFE   OF   THE   SPIRIT. 

tray  the  conflict  with  formal  notions  of  service, 
and  formal  notions  of  God ;  and  the  words  which 
set  forth  the  unity  of  God,  the  underground 
of  the  being  and  becoming  of  God  in  the  world, 
the  movement  of  the  self -moved  one,  the  mani- 
festation of  the  perfect  love.  S.  John  says,  Jesus 
answered  and  said  unto  them,  Verily,  verily,  I  say 
unto  you,  the  Son  can  do  nothing  of  himself,  but 
what  he  seeth  the  Father  do  ;  for  what  things  so- 
ever he  doeth,  these  also  doeth  the  Son  likewise ; 
for  the  Father  loveth  the  Son,  and  sheweth  him  all 
things  that  himself  doeth.  Therefore  in  this  wor- 
ship, there  is  the  rejection  of  the  principality  or 
power, — the  will  in  heaven  or  earth,  whose  end  is 
in  self  alone,  the  self-seeking  will,  and  the  recog- 
nition of  the  Will  that  is  manifest  in  sacrifice,  for 
the  redemption  and  the  realization  of  the  eternal 
life  of  humanity.  This  becomes  the  foundation  of 
the  worship  of  the  family  and  the  nation.  This 
worship  sets  forth  the  ground  of  the  unity  of  all 
nations  in  the  life  of  humanity.  We  are  enabled 
to  offer  the  oblation  of  ourselves  —  the  reasonable, 
holy,  and  living  sacrifice,  which  brings  us  into 
communion  with  the  will,  which  has  offered  the 
perfect  oblation  for  the  whole  world. 

The  sacraments  become  then  the  witness  of  the 
presence  of  Him  in  whom  is  the  eternal  founda- 
tion of  the  family  and  the  nation.  They  give  their 
interpretation  to  those  events  in  which  the  unity 
and  freedom  of  the  nation  is  conserved.  The 


THE   COMING  OF  LIGHT.  231 

crises  of  judgment  and  deliverance  in  its  history 
come  to  have  a  sacramental  character.  S.  Paul 
writes  to  the  church  in  Corinth  of  the  sacramental 
character  of  events  in  the  history  of  his  own  na- 
tion: how  that  all  our  fathers  were  baptized  in  the 
cloud:  and  in  the  sea,  and  did  all  eat  of  the 
same  spiritual  meat,  and  did  all  drink  of  the  same 
spiritual  drink.  This  is  connected  with  the  recital 
of  historic  incidents  from  age  to  age,  of  the  most 
various  circumstance.  The  sacraments  are  the 
evidence  of  the  presence  with  the  nation  of  the 
Lord  of  Hosts,  from  whom  alone  its  deliverance 
proceeds,  who  is  the  leader  of  its  armies,  and  alone 
the  giver  of  victory. 

The  coming  of  the  Spirit  is  in  the  assertion  of 
the  presence  and  coming  of  a  principle  or  power 
of  light  in  the  world.  This  is  riot  a  vague  illus- 
tration or  an  illusion  of  the  imagination.  There  is 
the  coming  of  an  active  power  and  an  energy  in 
the  policies  and  politics  of  this  earth,  which  they 
who  build  their  dominations  over  it  may  refuse 
to  recognize,  but  which  they  cannot  always  ob- 
struct. This  light  discloses  the  false  foundations, 
on  which  human  society  may  aim  to  build,  with  its 
theories  of  property  and  art.  This  penetrates  the 
utmost  depths  of  sin,  and  the  isolations  of  selfish- 
ness, and  is  in  conflict  with  all  the  powers  that 
dwell  in  its  gloom,  —  the  superstitions  and  the  in- 
quisitions and  tyrannies  of  men.  It  will  at  last 


232  THE  LIFE  OF  THE   SPIRIT. 

overthrow  all  repressive  policies,  which  crush  the 
spirits  of  men.  The  Christ  says,  every  one  that 
doeth  evil  hateth  the  light,  neither  cometh  to  the 
light,  lest  his  deeds  should  be  reproved;  but  he 
that  doeth  truth  cometh  to  the  light.  The  exist- 
ence of  this  principle  and  this  energy  become:* 
the  ground  of  strength  and  hope.  Thus  S.  Paul 
says,  have  no  fellowship  with  the  unfruitful  works 
of  darkness  ;  all  things  that  are  convicted  as  wrong 
are  shown  to  be  what  they  actually  are  by  light; 
for  whatever  shows  things  to  be  what  they  actually 
are  is  light.  Wherefore  he  saith :  Awake,  thou 
that  sleepest,  and  arise  from  the  dead,  and  Christ 
shall  give  thee  light. 

In  the  life  of  the  spirit  there  is  alone  the 
ground  of  unity  and  reconciliation  and  peace. 
The  finite  is  taken  up  and  changed  ;  —  it  is  trans- 
muted in  the  infinite.  The  struggle  for  existence 
becomes  a  conflict  within  man  reaching  to  the 
depths  of  his  nature,  and  then  peace  is  not  a  mere 
quiescence,  nor  a  balance  of  adverse  forces,  but  it 
comes  with  unity  and  reconciliation.  It  has  an 
ethical  quality.  It  is  the  peace  that  the  world 
cannot  give.  It  is  not  derivative  from  the  world  ; 
for  in  the  physical  process,  from  deep  to  deep  ;  or 
in  the  organization  of  nature,  from  the  germ  to 
its  decay ;  there  is  motion  without  cessation,  and 
apparently  it  has  its  subsidence  with  the  extinc- 
tion of  life,  when  the  temperature  has  become  uni- 
form, as  action  exists  in  unequal  conditions  of  heat 


THE  GIFT  OF  PEACE.  233 

and  cold,  which  tend,  though  gradually,  to  their 
equalization.  And  life  cannot  be  conceived  in  the 
physical  process  with  the  cessation  of  motion. 
There  is  the  struggle  for  existence,  but  with  no 
other  rest,  —  only  the  rest  of  death.  The  Christ 
says,  my  peace  I  give  unto  you  ;  not  as  the  world 
giveih  give  I  unto  you.  It  is  the  peace  which  pas- 
se th  understanding,  for  in  it  death  is  overcome ; 
it  is  the  peace  of  Him  whose  gift  is  eternal  life  ; 
it  is  the  peace  of  God. 

There  comes  through  the  life  of  the  spirit  the 
knowledge  and  the  realization  of  the  truth.  It  is 
not  simply  the  truth,  apprehended  as  an  inference 
from  the  observation  of  the  physical  process  of  the 
finite  world,  though  it  brings  the  elements  of  re- 
flection and  resolution  to  this  knowledge.  It  is  not 
truth  simply  as  the  formulas  of  science,  but  it  is  the 
truth  that  has  a  relation  with  the  emotions  and 
the  will,  and  is  the  ground  of  their  education.  It 
is  the  truth  that  brings  strength  to  love  and  free- 
dom. It  is  the  sanctification  of  the  truth.  It  is 
formed  in  the  relations  and  through  the  events  of 
life,  and  not  in  separation  from  them.  It  is  at- 
tained in  and  not  apart  from  the  family  and  the 
nation.  It  has  its  ground  in  the  will  of  God :  S. 
Paul  says  ;  this  is  the  will  of  God,  even  your  sanc- 
tification. 

In  the  life  of  the  spirit,  the  life  of  righteous- 
ness is  to  have  its  recompense.  It  has  not  that 


f 
234  THE  LIFE  OF  THE   SPIRIT. 

recompense  for  its  end,  and  it  is  formed  not  for 
gain,  —  not  for  the  hope  of  gaining  heaven,  and  it 
has  not  thus  an  end  external  to  itself.  But  it  is 
the  characteristic  of  a  recent  school  of  ethics  that 
it  should  reject  this,  and  leave  it  with  mere  nega- 
tions. It  may  be,  in  an  unbelieving  age,  when 
weariness  and  doubt  seem  to  ally  themselves  with 
the  corruption  of  the  grave  ;  when  faith  and  hope 
become  the  mockery  of  the  world  ;  when  trust  in 
the  love  of  God,  as  the  central  principle  of  the 
world,  is  made  the  jest  of  the  school  and  the  sub- 
ject for  the  derision  of  the  multitude  in  the  popu- 
lar assembly ;  it  may  be  in  that  age  that  men  are 
bidden  to  live  with  faith,  looking  for  a  recom- 
pense. The  endurance  that  meets  persecution  for 
righteousness,  has  the  promise  of  the  beatific  life ; 
rejoice  and  be  exceeding  glad,  for  great  is  your  re- 
ward in  heaven.  It  is  not  the  return  of  work  and 
its  obligation,  for  it  shall  be  given  unto  this  last, 
even  as  unto  thee ;  it  is  not  the  wages  of  service, 
the  gift  of  God  is  eternal  life. 

The  life  of  the  spirit  is  the  new  life.  It  is  the 
life  of  the  regeneration.  It  is  the  life  that  is  not 
determined  in  finite  conditions,  as  in  the  physical 
process,  but  it  is  the  real,  the  eternal  life.  The 
Christ  asserts  the  necessity  of  this  regeneration, 
not  because  of  antecedent  conditions  of  sin ;  but 
because,  that  which  is  born  of  the  flesh  is  flesh,  ana 
that  which  is  born  of  the  Spirit  is  spirit 


PERFECT  MANHOOD.  235 

This  regenerative  power  is  manifest  in  the  lives 
of  men  and  nations.  It  goes  forth  to  the  bap- 
tism of  all  nations.  The  regeneration  is  a  life  that 
is  not  the  sequence  nor  continuance  of  physical 
forces,  nor  determined  by  physical  contingencies, 
nor  having  its  conclusion  in  the  dissolution  of 
physical  forms.  It  is  not  the  life  that  is  after  the 
traditions  of  men  or  the  rudiments  of  the  world. 
It  is  the  true  life  of  humanity,  the  life  that  it  has 
in  the  Christ,  the  real  head  of  the  human  race ; 
the  first  Adam  is  of  the  earth  earthy  :  the  second 
Adam  is  the  Lord  from  heaven. 

The  process  and  end  of  the  life  of  the  spirit  is 
the  development  of  a  perfect  humanity.  The  aim 
is  the  attainment  and  fulfillment  of  a  perfect  man- 
hood. The  Christ  says,  be  ye  perfect,  even  as  your 
Father  in  heaven  is  perfect.  It  is  the  law  and  ful- 
fillment of  a  perfect  and  perfected  humanity.  If 
a  man  aims  to  be  more  or  other  than  a  man,  then 
he  must  become  less  than  a  man.  But  this  is  not 
simply  the  development  of  a  life  in  identity  with 
nature ;  it  is  not  simply  the  projection  of  this 
physical  being,  but  while  there  is  in  it  the  extinc- 
tion of  none  of  its  powers  or  its  energies,  it  is  a 
life  formed  and  determined  through  the  mediation 
of  the  spirit.  In  this  process  nature  is  controlled 
and  determined  through  the  mediation  of  the 
spirit,  and  it  is  this  and  this  alone  that  gives  its 
significance  to  the  ideal  of  art. 


236  THE  LIFE   OF  THE   SPIRIT. 

It  is  the  realization  of  a  perfect  manhood.  For 
this  end  the  Son  of  God  became  the  Son  of  man. 
S.  Paul  says  its  end  is  that  we  all  come  in  the 
unity  of  the  faith,  and  of  the  knowledge  of  the 
Son  of  God,  unto  a  perfect  man,  unto  the  measure 
of  the  stature  of  the  fullness  of  Christ.  It  is  a 
perfect  humanity.  This  does  not  yield  to  age, 
with  its  increase  of  infirmities.  Its  process  is  not 
from  life  unto  death.  It  does  not  grow  old  with 
the  waning  of  the  years.  S.  Paul  says,  though  our 
outward  man  perish,  yet  the  inward  man  is  re- 
newed day  by  day. 

While  the  process  and  end  of  the  life  of  the  Spirit 
is  the  development  of  a  perfect  humanity  this  is  not 
through  a  principle  of  exclusion,  but  there  is  the 
negation  and  transmutation  of  a  principle  of  exclu- 
sion, and  its  end  is  in  the  realization  of  a  perfect  hu- 
man society.1  In  the  manifestation  of  the  Son  of 
man,  there  is  the  ground  of  the  redemptive  life  of 
humanity.  It  is  the  manifestation  of  the  foundation 
of  the  life  of  humanity  in  the  fatherhood  of  God 
and  the  brotherhood  of  man.  It  is  of  and  in  the 

1  4l  The  apostles  did  not  dare  —  they  did  not  find  it  possible —  to 
think  of  human  society,  except  as  constituted  in  Christ.  It  was  the 
confusion,  the  unbelief  of  men,  to  regard  themselves  as  capable  of 
fellowship  and  of  existence  without  him.  It  was  theirs  to  proclaim 
that  there  could  have  been  no  families,  no  nations,  to  resist  the  self- 
ish tendencies  which  each  of  us  is  conscious  of  in  himself,  and  com- 
plains of  in  his  neighbors,  if  there  had  not  been  one  living  centre  of 
the  whole  body  of  humanity,  one  head  of  every  man."  (Maurice, 
Sermons,  vol.  iv.  p.  10.) 


THE  LAW  OF  HUMANITY.  237 

Christ,  who  has  brought  to  man  in  his  own  life  the 
law  of  love  and  sacrifice.  It  affirms  the  principle 
that  no  man  liveth  and  no  man  dieth  to  himself.  It 
sets  forth  the  organic  relations  of  human  society.1 
The  law  is  coming  to  be  recognized,  which  not 
only  regards  society  as  a  body,  but  affirms  that 
none  can  be  isolated  from  its  relations,  whether  one 
member  suffer,  air  the  members  suffer  with  it.  It  is 
alone  in  righteousness  and  freedom  that  there 
is  laid  the  ground  of  the  enduring  order  and  de- 
velopment of  human  society.  The  law  of  the 
Christ  becomes  the  law  of  humanity :  bear  ye 
one  another's  burdens,  and  so  fulfill  the  law  of 
Christ.  The  bond  of  society  is  in  the  truth, 
wherefore  putting  away  lying,  speak  evert/  man 
truth  with  his  neighbor,  for  we  are  members  one 

1  "  The  name  of  the  God  of  Abraham  and  of  Isaac  is  not  lost  in 
the  name  of  the  Father  and  the  Son  and  the  Holy  Ghost ;  the  per- 
fect and  universal  revelation  explains  all  the  gradual  discoveries  that 
are  leading  to  it.  And  that  perfect  revelation  will  be  proved  at  last 
to  be  what  an  ecclesiastical  system,  what  philosophical  liberalism  has 
tried  to  be  and  failed, —  the  assertion  of  a  humanity  in  which  all 
races  are  equally  partakers.  The  Church  which  is  to  be,  will  not  be 
another  than  that  which  has  grown  up  under  authority  of  this  com- 
mission, and  has  stood  ever  since  in  different  lands,  in  different 
degrees  of  strength  and  feebleness,  of  sincerity  and  corruption.  She 
will  only  have  learned  through  hard  suffering  the  foundation  which 
she  has  forgotten.  She  will  be  purged  of  whatever  loveth  and 
maketh  a  lie,  that  she  may  understand  she  is  the  witness  of  truth  to 
all  nations."  (Maurice,  Sermons,  vol.  iv.  p.  48.) 

"  A  deliverance  from  lies  would  be  the  great  deliverance  for  us 
all.  Nor  may  we  obtain  it,  nor  society  be  brave  and  truthful,  nor 
we,  the  members  of  society,  be  so  until  we  take  S.  Paul's  words  in 
their  full  sense:  'Wherefore,  putting  away  lying,  speak  every  man  truth 


238  THE  LIFE  OF  THE  SPIRIT. 

of  another.  It  is  the  law  of  Christ  that  becomes 
the  ground  of  the  development  of  domestic  and 
national  economies  in  human  society. 

The  election  of  humanity  is  in  the  Christ,  in 
the  fulfillment  of  the  purpose  that  was  the  eternal 
purpose  of  God  before  the  foundation  of  the 
world.1  It  is  not  the  separation  of  some  from 
the  human  race  by  a  process  of  inclusion,  and  the 
rejection  of  others  by  the  same  process,  from  a  life 
of  righteousness.  It  is  the  manifestation  of  the 
will  of  God,  revealed  in  the  Christ,  toward  all  men, 
in  the  manifestation  of  the  perfect  life.  S.  Paul 
writes  of  the  faith  of  God's  elect,  which  God,  that 
cannot  lie,  in  hope  of  eternal  life,  promised  before 
the  world  began.  This  election  is  in  the  will  of 
God,  and  is  manifest  in  the  continuous  course  of 
the  world.  It  is  the  election  of  all  men.  It  is 
not  the  selection  of  some  for  happiness  and  some 
for  misery.  S.  Paul  could  write  of  the  condi- 
tion of  his  own  nation  when  he  went  to  the  na- 

witk  his  neighbor,  for  we  are  members  one  of  another.  There  is  the 
secret.  We  do  not  believe  that  we  are  members  one  of  another. 
We  do  not  believe  that  there  is  one  living  and  true  head  of  us 
all.  We  do  not  think  that  he  knows  our  secrets,  and  wishes  us  to 
be  true  in  our  inward  parts,  and  is  himself  the  truth.  This  —  the 
vice  of  the  beggar  and  the  opulent,  of  him  who  sells  votes  and  him 
who  buys  them  —  can  only  be  extirpated  by  faith  in  one  who  as- 
cended on  high,  and  united  us  all  to  God,  and  to  each  other." 
(Maurice,  Sermons,  vol.  vi.  p.  85.) 

1  "Jesus  is  the  one  elect;  and  those  who,  by  taking  part  with 
him,  become  members  of  his  body,  become  also  members  of  the 
election;  and  those  who  continue  to  resist  him  shut  themselves  out 
from  the  election."  (Erskine,  Memoirs,  p.  228.) 


THE  EDUCATION  OF  THE  WORLD.  239 

tions,  until  the  fullness  of  the  Gentiles  be  come 
in,  and  so  all  Israel  shall  be  saved.  And  the 
nations  which  come  into  existence  in  the  course  of 
the  Christian  history,  while  they  rest  in  the  same 
will,  and  are  led  through  the  same  redemption, 
go  forth  in  the  realization  of  a  more  perfect  unity 
and  toward  a  more  perfect  freedom. 

There  is  in  the  life  of  the  spirit  the  revelation 
of  the  source  and  end  of  life  in  its  eternal  rela- 
tions. The  words  of  faith  are  of  the  Holy  Ghost, 
the  Lord  and  Giver  of  Life.  The  representation 
of  human  life,  which  has  thence  its  ground,  is  of 
an  eternal  life,  which  was  promised  before  the  world 
was,  and  subsists  in  infinite  relations,  with  the 
Father,  and  the  Son,  and  the  Holy  Ghost.  This 
representation  is  imperfectly  expressed  in  the 
words,  —  the  education  of  the  world.  The  repre- 
sentation, also,  of  life  merely  as  a  probation, —  if  in 
that  notion  it  is  assumed  that  men  are  subjected  to 
a  system  of  tests,  as  coins  are  weighed  on  well- 
adjusted  scales;  or  that  each,  here  or  hereafter, 
has  one  or  several  fair  chances  in  a  method  of 
indifference,  in  which  the  result  is  a  subject  of 
divine  conjecture,  so  far  as  the  chances  go, —  this 
representation  does  not  consist  with  the  facts  of 
human  life,  nor  with  the  revelation  of  the  Christ. 
It  does  not  consist  with  the  relative  duration  of 
existence,  nor  with  the  relative  ignorance  and  in- 
capacity of  tribes  and  races.  The  phrase  which 


240  THE  LIFE  OF  THE  SPIRIT. 

allows  to  each,  at  some  period,  a  fair  chance,  has 
the  same  superficial  ground  and  false  conception 
of  life.  If  the  chances  of  Tyre  and  Sidon  were 
fair,  those  of  Sodom  and  Gomorrah  were  less  than 
fair.  But  this  phrase  does  not  consist  with  the 
simplest  representation  of  the  revelation  of  the 
Christ,  with  the  election  and  grace  of  God,  with 
the  love  manifested  in  the  Son  of  God  who  became 
the  Son  of  man.1  It  does  not  consist  with  a  true 
conception  of  the  freedom  of  the  will,  which  cer- 
tainly involves  the  power  of  choice ;  but  freedom 
is  more  and  other  than  that.  The  phrase  which 
represents  life  as  a  discipline,  and  an  education 
into  the  knowledge  and  love  and  freedom  of  God, 
is  consistent  more  nearly  with  the  revelation  of 
God.  It  is  a  life  in  the  limitations  of  the  finite, 

1  «*  There  are  few  religious  phrases  that  have  had  such  a  power 
of  darkening  men's  minds  as  to  their  true  relation  to  God,  as  the 
common  phrase  that  we  are  here  in  a  state  of  probation,  under 
trial,  as  it  were.  We  are  not  in  a  state  of  probation,  we  are  in  a 
process  of  education,  directed  by  that  eternal  purpose  of  love  which 
brought  us  into  being.  When  we  apprehend  that  we  are  in  a  pro- 
cess of  education,  that  God  will  carry  to  its  fulfillment,  however 
long  it  may  take,  we  feel  that  the  loving  purpose  of  the  Father  is 
over  us,  and  that  the  events  of  life  are  not  appointed  as  testing 
us,  whether  we  will  choose  God's  will  or  not,  but  real  lessons  into 
training  us  to  make  the  right  choice. 

"  The  gospel  declares  that  not  inevitable  laws,  however  great, 
however  righteous,  but  a  being  of  righteousness  and  love,  guides  and 
rules  the  universe,  and  that  his  own  purpose  in  creating  and  sustain- 
ing man  is  to  make  him  a  partaker  in  his  own  blessedness  by  making 
him  a  partaker  in  his  own  righteousness,  and  that  all  the  events  of 
life  constitute  the  education  by  which  he  would  train  us  and  lead  us 
to  that  end."  (Erskine,  Memoirs,  p.  376.) 


THE  LAW  OF  WORSHIP.  24  1 

that  compasses  them  in  the  life  that  is  infinite, 
It  is  the  endurance  of  all  that  life  brings,  and 
through  endurance  there  is  victory;  it  is  the  king- 
dom and  patience  of  Jesus  Christ.  It  folloAvs  him 
who  learned  obedience  by  the  things  which  he 
suffered  ;  and,  being  perfected,  became  the  author 
of  eternal  salvation  to  all  who  obey  him.  It  is  on 
this  earth  the  discipline  of  virtue  that  in  its  neces- 
sary conditions,  becomes  the  incontrovertible  argu- 
ment and  evidence  of  a  life  that  is  not  determined 
in  the  process  of  the  physical  world  ;  it  verifies  the 
words  which  were  the  strength  of  our  fathers,  and 
shall  be  the  strength  of  manhood  until  the  end  of 
time  :  he  that  hath  suffered  in  the  jlesh  hath  ceased 
from  sin.  This  life  is  a  growth,  and,  through 
the  redemption  of  the  Christ,  into  the  life  of  Go:l. 
It  is  through  the  finite  into  a  life  which  has  its 
foundation  in  the  eternal  life,  its  freedom  in  the 
infinite  life.  It  is  a  growth  in  a  life  which  is  self- 
determined,  and  is  not  determined  by  external 
limitations.  It  is  not  the  subjection  of  being  to 
another,  for  it  is  immoral  that  one  should  be  used 
as  a  means  for  an  end  external  to  his  own  being,  or 
to  subserve  the  being  of  another  to  himself.  It  is 
the  development  of  being  in  its  own  whole.  The 
Christ  says,  No  man  taketh  my  life  from  me.  1 
lay  it  down  of  myself.  I  have  power  to  lay  it 
down  and  I  have  power  to  take  it  again. 

In  the  life  of  the  spirit,  through  the  courses  of 

16 


242  THE  LIFE  OF  THE   SPIRIT. 

history,  the  ritual  of  the  Church  is  to  be  formed 
in  the  law  and  unity  and  freedom  of  the  spirit. 
Its  ritual  is  formed  in  the  requirement,  they  that 
worship  the  Father  shall  worship  him  in  spirit 
and  in  truth.  Its  unity  is  in  the  Spirit.  It  does 
not  assume  the  subjection  of  the  spirit  to  the 
letter,  nor  to  the  precedent  of  those  who  sit  in 
the  seats  of  the  elders.  Its  end  is  universal. 
It  does  not  look  for  the  perpetuation  of  Jerusa- 
lem, nor  of  Athens  or  Rome,  with  their  separate 
sanctities.1  We  have  no  continuing  city  here  :  we 
are  come  to  the  heavenly  Jerusalem.  We  are  bidden 
to  journey  toward  no  earthly  town  or  city,  how- 
ever great  in  the  historical  courses  of  the  world, 
and  however  many  the  attractions  be  that  are  re- 
counted of  it :  the  Jerusalem  which  is  above  is 
free,  which  is  the  mother  of  us  all. 

The  life  of  the  spirit  is  the  eternal  life  of  man. 
It  is  not  spatial  nor  temporal ;  it  is  not  bounded 
by  these  coasts  of  time  ;  it  is  here  and  now,  but 
it  is  not  at  this  place  to  be  described  by  the  loca- 
tion of  this  place,  and  it  is  not  at  this  time  to  be 
measured  by  the  termination  of  this  time.  It  is 
not  in  the  past,  and  it  is  not  to  be  foisted  away 
into  the  future;  he  that  believeth  hath  eternal  life. 

1  The  only  law  of  ritual  affirmed  in  the  First  General  Council  of 
the  Church,  Nicsea,  A.  D.  325,  is  Canon  XX.     This  commends  the 
posture  of  standing  in  prayer,  which  it  seems  good  to  the  holy  synod 
to  prefer.     But  it  does  not  follow  that  a  law  of  ritual  of  this  char 
acter  is  necessarily  to  be  held  as  permanent. 


THE  FELLOWSHIP  OF  THE  HOLY  GHOST.    243 

There  is  in  man  the  suspect  that  in  the  tran- 
sient course  of  things  there  is  yet  an  intimation 
of  that  which  is  not  transient.  The  grass  that 
fades  has  yet  in  the  folded  and  falling  leaves  of  its 
ilower  that  perishes  the  intimation  of  a  beauty 
that  does  not  fade.  The  treasures  that  are  frayed 
by  the  moth  and  worn  by  the  rust  are  not  as 
those  in  which  love  and  faith  and  hope  abide. 
There  is  a  will  that  in  its  purpose  does  not  yield 
to  mortal  wrong.  There  is  a  joy  that  is  not  of 
emulation.  There  is  a  freedom  that  is  other  than 
the  mere  struggle  for  existence  in  physical  rela- 
tions, and  is  not  determined  in  its  source  or  end 
by  these  finite  conditions. 

This  is  the  life  of  the  spirit.  It  is  born  of 
God ;  it  is  of  the  uncreated  Spirit ;  it  is  begotten, 
not  made  ;  it  proceeds  from  the  Father  and  the 
Son ;  it  is  in  the  fellowship  of  the  Holy  Ghost. 

The  inspiration  of  the  Spirit,  the  Christ  recog- 
nized ;  the  Spirit  descended  upon  him  and  was 
sent  from  him.  It  is  the  evidence  of  a  relation 
and  a  communion  manifested  in  the  Christ  with 
the  life  of  man.  The  prophetic  and  the  priestly 
and  the  kingly  line  closed  in  the  Christ ;  —  only  as 
from  him  there  was  to  come  the  prophetic  and 
priestly  and  kingly  powers  of  humanity. 

There  is  in  men  and  in  nations  the  consciousness 
of  the  existence  of  physical  and  of  spiritual  powers 
and  relations.  It  is  not  that  the  life  of  man  is 


244  THE  LIFE   OF  THE   SPIRIT. 

wholly  physical  until  a  certain  epoch,  and  there- 
after wholly  spiritual ;  although  in  the  racial  de- 
velopment of  man,  the  physical  precedes  the  spir- 
itual. There  is  thence  the  ethical  conflict,  in  which 
the  spiritual  comes  to  be  apprehended  as  before  and 
above  the  physical,  and  striving  toward  its  realiza- 
tion. This  has  its  illustration  in  the  widest  ranges 
of  literature  and  art.  This  is  the  ground  of  those 
words  of  counsel,  walk  in  the  Spirit,  and  ye  shall 
not  fulfill  the  lust  of  the  flesh,  for  the  flesh  lust- 
eth  against  the  spirit,  and  the  spirit  against  the 
flesh. 

The  life  of  the  spirit  has  its  fulfillment  in  the 
life  of  humanity  in  God.  It  is  the  fulfillment  of 
the  will  that  held  its  purpose  in  love  before  the 
world  was.  It  is  the  love  that  is  stronger  than 
death,  and  in  its  perfect  fulfillment  man  is  brought 
into  oneness  with  God.  S.  John  says,  God  is  love, 
and  he  that  loveth  is  born  of  God. 

Thus  the  phrase,  the  last  judgment,  is  not  dis- 
tinctively 'characteristic  of  the  revelation  of  the 
Christ.  The  judgment  is  continuous,  and  in  the 
increasing  realization  of  righteousness  and  truth 
and  love.  It  is  not,  as  an  ultimate  event,  —  the 
final  goal  of  humanity,  and  the  end  of  all  things. 
S.  Paul  says,  then  cometh  the  end,  when  God  shall 
be  all  in  all. 

The  judgment,  in  the  separation  and  discrimi 
nation  in  the  divine  light,  of  the  eternal  signifi 


THE  KINGDOM  THAT  HATH  NO  END.     245 

cance  of  good  and  evil,  and  their  consequence  in 
eternal  life  and  eternal  death,  becomes  the  ground 
of  an  infinite  hope.  It  is  faith  and  hope  and  love 
that  abide.  But  the  greater  is  love.  This  love 
that  was  before  the  world  was,  does  not  perish  with 
the  perishing  world.  It  will  follow  every  child 
of  time,  and  it  does  not  yield  to  death. 

The  assumption  that  the  doom  of  each  and  all, 
in  the  moment  of  physical  death,  is  irrevocably 
fixed,  is  the  assumption  of  the  extremest  fatalism. 
From  the  finite  conceptions  of  men,  it  derives  its 
moulds  and  measures  for  the  divine  love,  and  in 
the  courses  of  human  thought  it  is  formed  on 
pessimism  in  alliance  with  dualism.  It  places  a 
finite  limit  to  the  divine  redemption.  It  is  an  ulti- 
mate subjection  to  sin  and  death.  That  the  moral 
degradation  of  men  and  of  nations  tends  toward 
it,  is  no  evidence  that  no  other  and  higher  powers 
shall  prevail  toward  their  perfect  fulfillment.  The 
Christ  has  conquered  death,  and  in  death  there  is 
no  limit  to  his  power.  The  law  and  life  which  the 
Christ  has  manifested  is  the  universal  law  and  life, 
and  there  is  no  place  that  can  be  detached  from 
it,  in  the  universe. 

The  relation  of  every  man  to  humanity  in  the 
Christ  is  the  ground  of  the  faith  and  hope  and 
love  which  justify  the  words,  that  bid  men  to 
count  not  the  ninety  and  nine,  but  to  seek  with 
unceasing  quest  for  one  that  is  lost. 

We  are  to  strive  in  a  world  where  infinite  good 


246  THE  LIFE  OF  THE   SPIRIT. 

and  evil  are,  and  we  can  only  overcome  evil  with 
good.  That  humanity  is  joined  in  the  bonds  of 
that  love  which  was  before  the  foundation  of  the 
world,  and  that  virtue  is  brought  into  an  active 
conflict  with  evil,  is  the  assurance  of  their  ulti- 
mate triumph.  It  is  not  immediate,  and  vice  and 
crime  may  still  go  on  ;  he  that  is  unjust  shall  be 
unjust  still.  But  the  ultimate  realization  of  the 
divine  redemption  shall  be  in  the  overthrow  of 
every  power  that  has  held  the  spirit  of  man  in 
subjection,  and  wrought  its  degradation.  But  the 
consequences  of  evil  continue  through  an  ethical 
development.  We  may  be  saved  from  sin  and 
hell;  we  may  be  lost  in  their  vacancy  and  misery 
and  despair,  and  suffer  their  confinement.  Ge- 
henna was  not  far  from  Jerusalem,  and  its  fires 
were  still  burning,  when  it  became  the  type  of 
the  consequences  of  sin  for  man.  This  gives  in- 
tenser  significance  to  the  fire  that  is  not  quenched, 
in  the  judgment  of  the  wicked. 

The  fulfillment  of  the  redemption  is  the  realiza- 
tion of  righteousness,  the  fulfillment  in  humanity 
of  the  righteousness  of  the  Son  of  God,  who  be- 
came the  Son  of  man.  It  is  the  victory  of  faith, 
but  this  is  not  for  the  individual  alone  and  within 
his  own  spirit.  It  is  not  a  victory  that  separates 
him  from  humanity,  nor  withdraws  him  from  the 
world  that  has  been  redeemed,  but  it  brings  out 
the  ground  of  his  relation  to  humanity.  It  is  faith 


THE  ETERNAL  LIFE.  247 

in  One,  who  being  the  Son  of  God  has  become 
the  Son  of  man. 

But  the  thoughts  of  men  in  the  revelation  of 
God  through  the  Christ,  and  in  the  life  of  the 
spirit,  are  not  sent  forth  to  wander  in  vacuity. 
The  family  and  the  nation  are  not  to  be  regarded 
as  insubstantial  in  their  unity  and  foundation.  The 
precedent  of  their  life  is  not  to  be  found  only  in 
the  vestiges  that  are  left,  as  the  strata  of  geolog- 
ical deposits,  to  indicate  the  succeeding  tribes  and 
races  that  have  passed  over  a  continent,  one  van- 
ishing before  another,  as  if  worn  out  in  the  strug- 
gle. 

The  records  of  the  Old  Testament  have  no  as- 
sertion of  the  immortality  of  the*  soul,  as  it  is  ap* 
prehended  in  the  religions  and  the  philosophie^;6f 
the  world.  But  there  is  the  assuranVe^that ;  <the 
family  and  the  nation  are  immortal.  The  sugges- 
tion of  a  life  that  is  immortal  is  in  the  hope  that 
rests  in  the  continuous  life  of  the  family  and  the 
nation,  which  have  their  unity  and  foundation  in 
God.  This  is  the  hope  that  came  to  the  king  of 
Israel,  that  each  may  live  since  they  live. 

The  records  of  the  New  Testament  have  not  the 
assertion  of  the  immortality  of  the  soul,  as  subse- 
quent to  the  incident  of  physical  death,  primarily 
for  their  subject.  It  is  the  life  of  humanity  in  the 
Christ  that  is  the  evidence  of  the  incorruptible, 
the  immortal  life.  The  Christ  has  brought  to 
the  spirit  of  man  the  realization  of  life  and  im- 


248  THE  LIFE   OF  THE   SPIRIT. 

mortality ;  he  has  brought  life  and  immortality  to 
light. 

This  is  the  life  of  the  spirit,  the  real  life,  in 
which  alone  there  is  the  satisfaction  of  the  spirit. 
This  is  the  life  that  shall  not  see  corruption.  It 
does  not  decompose  with  the  physical  elements, 
nor  suffer  their  decay.  It  is  not  measured  by  the 
ashes  of  the  urn,  nor  by  the  confines  of  the  grave. 
The  strength  that  moves  with  its  forces  is  that  of 
an  eternal  life.  The  power  that  animates  it  is  the 
power  that  is  not  of  the  sequences  of  earth  and 
time  ;  it  is  the,  power  of  the  resurrection. 

The  resurrection  from  the  dead  is  in  and  through 
the  Christ.  The  Christ  has  overcome  death ;  death 
hath  no  more  dominion  over  him.1 

The  resurrection  is  not  the  resurrection  of  the 
physical  body.  It  is  not  the  resultant  of  the  law 
of  physical  necessity,  nor  subject  to  physical  con- 
ditions. It  is  not  the  recovery  and  reconstruction 

1  "  Death  hath  no  more  dominion  over  him;  for  in  that  lie  died, 
he  died  unto  sin  once;  in  that  he  liveth,  he  liveth  unto  God.  The 
apostle  presents  the  fact  of  the  resurrection  as  a  manifestation  of  the 
divine  relation  in  which  Christ  stood  to  the  Eternal  Father  ;  of  the 
divine  life  which  dwelt  in  him  because  he  was  the  Son  of  God  ;  of 
the  divine  energy  which  was  every  hour  sustaining  that  life,  and 
which  in  weakness,  agony,  on  the  cross,  in  the  sepulchre,  sustained 
it  still."  (Maurice,  Sermons,  vol.  iv.  p.  4.) 

"  This  death,  —  this  common  death,  —  the  death  of  him  who  died 
for  all,  is  that  in  the  likeness  of  which  we  are  planted;  here  is  the 
bond  of  perfect  human  fellowship ;  here  is  the  assurance  that  death 
cannot  break  the  bonds  which  hold  us  to  each  other,  because  the 
Love  which  established  them  had  in  death  proved  itself  to  be 
itronger  than  death."  (Maurice,  Sermons,  vol.  iv.  p.  220.) 


THE  RESURRECTION.  249 

of  the  physical  body  from  the  physical  elements. 
It  is  the  resurrection  of  the  spiritual  body.  The 
apostle  says,  it  is  sown  a  physical  body,  it  is  raised 
a  spiritual  body :  there  is  a  physical  body  and 
there  is  a  spiritual  body. 

The  resurrection  is  not  in  the  evolution  of  the 
physical  process  of  the  world.  That  which  is  first 
is  physical,  and  then  that  which  is  spiritual.  But 
the  spiritual  has  not  its  ground  in  nor  its  deriva- 
tion from  the  physical.  The  end  of  the  physical 
process  for  individuals  and  races  is  death.  In  this 
physical  process  and  conclusion,  as  it  is  open  to 
observation  and  its  resultant  knowledge,  men  be- 
come, and  invariably,  mere  carrion  that  may  be 
reduced  to  ashes  or  concealed  beneath  the  sod,  at 
last  only  to  make  other  growths  more  rank.  It 
is  weakness  to  evade  the  invariable  result  which 
is  thus  within  the  observation  and  the  resultant 
knowledge  of  men.  S.  Paul  recognizes  it  with  a 
clearness  that  is  not  exceeded  by  the  writers  of 
the  physical  school  in  their  most  recent  literature ; 
corruption  does  not  inherit  incorruption.  This 
death  is  not  averted  by  .the  strength  of  youth, 
nor  the  gift  of  wealth,  nor  the  charm  of  beauty, 
nor  the  valor  of  armies.  It  is  not  overcome  by 
the  skill  of  those  arts  in  which  men  are  trained. 
But  men  recognize  the  weakness  with  which  they 
yield  to  disease,  and  the  advance  of  age,  and  the 
subjection  to  the  law  of  death,  and  the  dishonor  of 
the  grave,  in  this  process  of  physical  necessity 


250  THE  LIFE  OF  THE  SPIRIT. 

The  apostle  says,  it  is  sown  in  corruption ;  it  is 
raised  in  incorruption :  it  is  sown  in  dishonor  ;  it 
is  raised  in  glory  :  it  is  sown  in  weakness ;  it  is 
raised  in  power.  It  was  not  necessary  that  the 
writers  of  the  physical  school  should  repeat  the 
induction  of  the  physical  process  in  the  observa- 
tion and  apprehension  of  life  within  the  limits  of 
the  physical  process.  The  apostle  says,j#esA  and 
blood  cannot  inherit  the  kingdom  of  God.  But 
there  is,  again,  the  assertion  of  another  than  this 
physical  sequence  ;  this  corruptible  must  put  on 
incorruption,  and  this  mortal  put  on  immortality. 
JSo  when  this  corruptible  shall  have  put  on  incor- 
ruption, and  this  mortal  shall  have  put  on  immor- 
tality, then  shall  be  brought  to  pass  the  saying  that 
is  written,  death  is  swallowed  up  in  victory. 

The  resurrection  is  not  from  a  state  which  is 
subsequent  to  death,  nor  from  a  state  which  is 
separated  by  long  intervals  from  death.  It  is  not 
from  a  state  that  is  intermediate  between  certain 
other  states.  It  is  the  resurrection  of  the  dead. 
It  has  that  immediacy.1 

1  "  After  this  life  comes  the  fruition  of  his  glory.  The  longing 
for  selfish  prizes  has  ceased  ;  the  earthly  weakness  of  desiring  to  ex- 
change faith  for  sense  has  been  taken  away.  What  remains  is  the 
vision  of  that  light  which  fills  earth  and  heaven  ;  the  revelation  to 
the  inward  eye  of  God  himself,  as  the  eye  of  the  spiritual  boJy  will, 
by  degrees,  become  capable  of  taking  in  all  the  beauty  and  harmony 
of  God's  works.  Yes!  there  is  in  all  of  us  a  sighing  for  home,  a 
longing  which  nothing  but  the  beholding  of  God  can  satisfy."  (Mau- 
rice, Sermons,  vol.  iv.  p.  126  ) 


THE  RESURRECTION.  251 

This  opens  for  men  the  communion  of  saints, 
which  is  involved  in  the  life  of  the  Church. 
They,  who  have  gone,  have  not  therefore  passed 
into  a  condition  of  lethargy  or  vacancy.  They 
may  be  nearer  to  us,  as  they  are  nearer  to  the  per- 
fect love.  They  may  guide  us  toward  a  holier 
and  ampler  freedom,  since  they  suffer  no  more 
the  limitations  of  time.  The  veil  is  rent.  There 
is  with  us  the  presence  of  the  unseen  host.  It  is 
not  alone  their  memory  that  remains,  their  spirit 
may  be  with  us.  This  brings  to  us  the  chastity  of 
hope,  he  that  hath  this  hope  in  him  purifieth  him- 
self. It  becomes  the  incentive  to  effort,  seeing 
we  also  are  compassed  about  with  so  great  a  cloud 
of  witnesses,  let  us  lay  aside  every  weight,  and  the 
sin  which  doth  so  easily  beset  us,  and  let  us  run 
with  patience  the  race  that  is  set  before  us.1 

1  This  communion,  tins  presence  of  an  unseen  company,  is  recog- 
nized in  the  critical  days,  and  recalled  in  the  high  services  of  na- 
tions. "  It,  is  not  unnatural  to  feel  that  they  who,  by  wisdom,  by 
valor,  by  sacrifice,  have  contributed  to  maintain  and  perfect  the 
institutions  which  we  possess  have  also  an  interest  in  this  day.  To 
a  spirit  alive  with  memories  of  the  time,  and  rejoicing  in  its  presage 
of  noble  futures,  recalling  the  great,  the  beloved,  the  heroic,  who 
have  labored  and  joyfully  died  for  its  coming,  it  will  not  seem  too 
fond  an  enthusiasm  to  feel  that  the  air  is  quick  with  shapes  we  can- 
not see,  and  glows  with  faces  whose  light  serene  we  may  not  catch." 
(Storrs,  Oration,  July  4,  1876.) 

There  are  memories  in  the  life  of  a  nation  which  find  expression 
in  very  eloquent  words,  that  move  men  with  their  truth,  as  no  phrases 
of  rhetoric  could  move  them.  At  the  meeting  of  the  armies  of  the 
Nation  at  Chicago,  June,  1880,  it  was  said  of  a  great  soldier,  "  From 
the  front  of  the  ranks,  and  with  his  face  to  the  foe,  booted  and 
spurred,  he  went  into  the  presence  of  the  God  of  Battles."  (Go* 


252  THE  LIFE   OF  THE   SPIRIT. 

It  was  the  doctrine  of  the  Pharisees  that  we 
shall  rise  at  the  last  day.  To  them  the  Christ 
says,  the  God  of  Abraham  and  the  God  of  Isaac 
and  the  God  of  Jacob  is  not  a  God  of  the  dead, 
but  of  the  living,  for  all  live  unto  him.  To  those 
who  said  to  him,  in  the  expression  of  the  pop- 
ular thought,  of  one  that  was  dead,  "  He  shall 
rise  again  at  the  last  day,"  he  answered,  I  am 
the  resurrection  and  the  life  Through  the  resur- 
rection the  conception  of  death  is  itself  changed. 
Death  is  no  more  clothed  with  the  signs  of  victory 
over  man. 

Cullom,  Oration.}  But  as  the  school  of  physical  science  concludes, 
did  he  go  to  the  mingling  of  the  physical  elements,  to  the  presence  of 
a  vaporous  mist,  only  to  add  some  more  to  that  vaporous  mist,  or  to 
the  combination  of  molecular  forces  tending  to  the  cessation  of  mo- 
tion with  the  equivalence  of  temperatures?  This  name,  the  God  oj 
Battles,  is  very  old;  we  have  received  it  from  our  fathers,  and  it  had 
a  certain  significance  in  a  book  which  we  have  received,  in  the  asser- 
tion of  the  presence  of  God,  who  is  the  leader  of  the  armies  of  earth, 
and  the  only  giver  of  victory.  We  may  believe  that  he  went  into  the 
very  presence  of  Him  whom  he  had  followed,  and  that  Host  is  with 
the  nation  always. 

It  was  said,  again,  "  They  fought  to  keep  our  country  on  the  map 
of  the  earth,  and  our  flag  in  heaven."  (Col.  Ingersoll,  Oration.} 
But  if  we  accept  the  counsel  of  S.  Paul,  Let  your  citizenship  be  in 
heaven,  we  may  believe  that  this  is  no  vacant  phrase,  that  it  is  very 
real  ;  that  the  flag  is  stirred,  as  it  is  borne  to  battle  and  sacrifice 
by  diviner  airs  than  those  of  earth,  and  is  the  witness  of  that  di- 
vine life  that  is  with  the  nation  always. 

Again  it  was  said,  "  With  a  nobler  ambition  than  the  gaining  of 
empire,  they  bore  their  puissant  arms  for  the  kingdom  of  man,  where 
liberty  reigneth  forever."  (Col.  Vilas,  Oration}  But  we  may  be- 
lieve that  this  kingdom  of  the  Son  of  man  is  very  real  and  has  eternal 
foundations,  and  that  the  freedom  of  man  is  beyond  the  accident  of 
earth  in  its  perfect  realization. 


THE  KESTJRRECTION.  253 

The  term,  —  the  immortality  of  the  soul,  — 
consists  more  strictly  with  the  speculations  of  the 
schools  of .  philosophy.  It  is  a  dry  and  abstract 
phrase.  It  is  not  a  term  which  corresponds  with 
those  terms  which  are  indicative  of  the  revelation 
of  the  Christ,  while  yet  it  affirms  a  truth  which 
has  its  fullest  realization  in  this  revelation.  It  is 
the  affirmation  of  the  spiritual  life,  which  is  im- 
mortal. This  does  not  suffer  corruption,  nor  yield 
to  death.  It  is  the  life  which  is  eternal :  the  first 
man  is  of  the  earth  earthy  ;  the  second  man  is  the 
Lord  from  heaven  :  as  we  have  borne  the  image  of 
the  earthy,  we  shall  also  bear  the  image  of  the 
heavenly. 

The  apostle  says,  the  Christ  was  declared  to  be 
the  Son  of  God  by  the  resurrection  from  the  dead. 
He  was,  in  the  deepest  significance  of  these  words, 
the  Son  of  man,  the  child  of  earth  and  time,  and 
he  suffered  the  incident  of  the  life  of  earth,  in 
these  finite  limitations,  and  became  subject  unto 
death ;  but  his  life  had  not  its  consummation  in 
this  physical  process,  as  the  resurrection  was  not  a 
power  which  had  its  derivation  from  the  physical 
process.  If  death  seemed  the  negation  of  the 
physical  process,  there  was  in  the  resurrection 
the  negation  of  death.  But  it  was  not  the  con- 
tinuance of  the  finite ;  it  was  the  perfect  restora- 
tion and  fulfillment  of  the  finite  in  the  coming  of 
the  life  that  was  infinite.  It  lifts  the  faith  and 
hope  of  man  to  God ;  the  apostle  says,  Gad 


254  THE  LIFE  OF  THE  SPIRIT. 

raised  Christ  from  the  dead,  and  gave  him  glory 
that  our  faith  and  hope  might  be  in  God.1 

The  faith  of  the  resurrection,  therefore,  must 
always  come  with  associations  of  joy.  It  is  the 
conquest  of  life.  The  final  victory  is  not  with 
death.  For  the  love  that  is  stronger  than  death 
leads  faith  to  look  through  death.  Whatever  be 
the  confusion  and  variance  of  the  world,  and  how- 
ever widely  misery  prevail  on  the  earth,  the 
Church  will  strive  to  celebrate  its  service  of  the 
resurrection,  with  a  joy  imperfectly  expressed  in 
the  opening  flowers  of  spring,  and  by  the  exultant 
anthems  that  rise  beyond  the  fanfare  of  trumpets 
and  are  borne  from  choir  to  choir. 

The  last  enemy  is  destroyed  and  the  conquest 
of  humanity  is  complete.  The  apostle  says,  the 
last  enemy  shall  be  destroyed,  which  is  death. 
There  is  no  limit  to  these  words,  as  in  Adam  all 
die,  even  so  in  Christ  shall  all  be  made  alive,  but 
every  man  in  his  own  order. 

The  power  of  love  and  sacrifice  is  proven  to  be 
the  mightiest  power  on  earth.  It  is  the  power 
of  him  who  was  the  first  and  is  the  last,  who  was 
in  the  beginning  and  is  the  end.  It  is  the  Lamb 

1  "  S.  Paul  not  only  speaks  of  our  Lord  being  made  like  unto  us, 
but  of  our  being  made  in  his  likeness.  He  does  not  limit  this  mode 
of  expression,  telling  us  that  we  may  be  made  holy  like  Christ  here, 
or  glorious  like  Christ  hereafter.  He  speaks  of  our  death  being  cast 
in  the  mould  of  his  death;  of  his  being  the  only  standard  by  which 
we  can  measure,  the  only  type  by  which  we  can  understand  our 
own."  (Maurice,  Sermons,  vol.  ii.  p.  213.) 


THE  ASCENSION.  255 

that  was  slain  from  the  foundation  of  the  world, 
but  it  has  become  the  sign  of  conquest  as  the 
cross  has  been  borne  in  front  of  the  armies  of 
earth,  borne  on  from  the  Church  militant  to  the 
Church  triumphant.  In  the  vision  of  S.  John  the 
universality  passes  beyond  our  conception,  and 
every  creature  which  is  in  heaven  and  on  the  earth 
and  under  the  earth,  and  such  as  are  in  the  sea, 
and  all  that  are  in  them  heard  I  saying,  blessing 
and  honor  and  glory  and  power  unto  him  that  sit- 
teth  upon  the  throne,  and  unto  the  Lamb  forever 
and  ever} 

The  subjection  of  all  things  is  perfect,  that  God 
may  be  all  in  all.  There  is  no  fear  of  the  end ; 
perfect  love  has  cast  out  fear.  There  is  no  fear  of 
that  which  lies  as  the  unknown,  for  the  law  which 
determines  it  is  known.  There  is  no  fear  of  that 
which  may  be  summoned  forth  from  beyond  the 

1  "  When  we  speak  of  death,  the  resurrection,  and  the  ascension, 
of  the  descent  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  of  the  revelation  of  Christ  as  the 
judge  of  the  quick  and  the  dead,  we  are  transported  into  a  region 
to  which  oui  measures  are  inapplicable.  He  has  overcome  death, 
he  has  taken  away  sin,  he  has  led  captivity  captive."  (Maurice,  Ser- 
mons, vol.  v.  p.  43.) 

"  We  receive,  then,  the  message  of  redemption  by  the  cross,  of 
Christ's  victory  over  the  grave,  as  he  and  his  apostles  delivered  it. 
The  cross  becomes  far  more  than  ever  the  sign  in  which,  and  in 
which  alone,  we  hope  to  conquer,  when  we  have  acknowledged  the 
Lamb  in  the  midst  of  the  throne.  The  resurrection  becomes  far 
more  than  ever  the  strength  to  the  dying  man,  when  the  voice  rings 
through  all  creation,  I  am  he  that  liveth  and  was  dead;  and,  behold,  1 
live  forevermore,  and  have  ih*  keys  of  death  and  of  hell."  (Maurice^ 
Sermons,  vol.  vi.  p.  89.) 


256  THE  LIFE  OF  THE  SPIRIT. 

confines  of  this  earth,  nor  drawn  from  the  lowest 
deeps ;  for  the  same  organic  law  prevails  through 
all  worlds,  —  the  law  manifested  in  the  Christ, 
in  his  redemptive  kingdom.  There  is,  then,  no 
power  that  is  not  brought  into  subjection  to  man, 
—  no  power  in  life  or  in  death,  in  things  present 
or  things  to  come.  There  is  no  finite  limitation  to 
the  redemption  of  the  Christ,  whose  kingdom  shall 
have  no  end.  S.  Paul  says,  the  Christ  being  raised 
from  the  dead  is  far  above  all  principality  and 
power,  and  might  and  dominion,  and  every  name 
that  is  named,  not  only  in  this  world  but  also  in 
that  which  is  to  come.  The  message  of  the  worlds 
to  come,  of  their  law  and  power,  is  that  the  Christ 
is  there,  Jesus  Christy  the  same  yesterday,  and  to- 
day, and  forever. 

The  fulfillment  of  the  life  of  humanity  in  the 
world  is  in  the  Christ  in  God.  The  end  is  not 
another  world.  The  end  is  the  perfect  and  per- 
fected world.  And  the  life  of  man  is  not  to  be 
for  ever  on  and  on,  to  overcome  and  still  to  over- 
come, to  mark  its  advance  by  its  journey  from 
mile  to  mile,  and  by  its  transfer  from  field  to 
field.  That  is  the  contingent  of  finite  relations. 
The  end  is  in  the  consummation  of  life,  the  full- 
ness of  Him  that  filleth  all  in  all.  There  is  no 
more  the  suffering  and  travail  of  earth.  The  love 
that  was  manifested  in  sacrifice  has  its  fulfillment 
in  the  joy  of  the  Eedeemer.  The  apostle  says, 
Christ  being  raised  from  the  dead,  dieth  no  more. 


THE  ASCENSION.  257 

The  death  and  the  resurrection  of  the  Christ  are 
always  to  be  connected  with  the  ascension.  This 
is  the  witness  that  no  limits  of  time  or  space  can 
separate  the  Christ  from  the  world  which  he  has 
redeemed.  It  is  the  witness  of  the  presence  of 
one  who  says  /  am  with  you  alway.1  It  is  the 
witness  that  the  heavens  are  opened,  and  that 
their  life  becomes  henceforth  one  with  the  life  of 
earth.  It  becomes  the  incentive  to  duty  in  a 
life  of  faith  and  hope  ;  the  apostle  says,  if  ye  then 
be  risen  with  Christ,  seek  those  things  which  are 
above.  It  is  the  evidence  of  a  pure  and  redeemed 
and  glorified  humanity.  It  fulfills  the  transfigura- 
tion in  the  eternal  glory  of  the  Son  of  man.  It 

1  u  The  faith  which  rests  upon  the  death  and  the  resurrection  of 
Christ,  without  taking  any  account  of  his  ascension,  may  serve  as 
long  as  our  thoughts  are  occupied  chiefly  with  the  condition  of  our 
own  souls,  and  with  the  question  how  they  may  be  saved  here 
or  hereafter.  But  when  we  are  brought  to  feel,  by  one  discipline  or 
another,  that  we  are  bound  up  for  good  or  for  evil  with  our  race, 
that  we  are  not  and  cannot  be  exempt  from  any  of  its  transgressions, 
then  comes  a  demand  for  something  more  than  the  gift  of  pardon, 
than  the  promise  of  a  better  world,  if  we  be  worthy.  When  we 
are  brought  to  this  border  land  between  despair  and  a  hope  that 
is  beyond  all  that  we  can  ask  or  think,  the  ascension  day  breaks  in 
upon  us,  as  with  the  light  of  seven  suns.  He  has  gone  up  on  high. 
He  is  there,  where  our  eyes  cannot  follow  him,  with  the  God  who 
is  and  was  and  is  to  come,  his  Father  and  our  Father.  He  is  there, 
not  separated  by  space  from  those  whose  nature  he  bears  ;  not  sep- 
arated from  them  in  any  sympathy ;  in  all  things  what  he  was  when 
he  bore  their  infirmities,  was  made  sin  for  them,  died  their  death. 
And  that  which  constitutes  his  perfect  Humanity,  his  truth,  his  jus- 
tice, his  purity,  his  sympathy,  —  this  is  our  inheritance."  (Maurice, 
Sermons,  vol.  vi.  p.  84.) 
17 


258  THE  LIFE   OF  THE   SPIRIT. 

verifies  the  words  of  prophecy,  henceforth  ye  shall 
see  the  heavens  opened,  and  the  Son  of  man  at  the 
right  hand  of  God. 

There  is  therefore  for  those  who  remain  in  the 
continuing  life  of  earth  no  anticipation  of  things 
to  come,  such  as  is  drawn  in  the  conceptions  of 
religion,  as  they  are  projected  into  the  future,  in 
the  imagination  of  the  world.  The  revelation 
that  is  to  come  is  one  with  that  that  now  is. 
After  this  life  there  shall  come  the  beatific  vision. 
The  semblances  of  earth  and  time  have  gone. 
There  is  the  manifestation  to  the  spiritual  eye  of 
the  fullness  of  the  eternal  glory.  But  there  is  no 
thought  of  the  life  to  come  that  is  apart  from 
Him  who  on  this  earth  was  parted  from  those 
who  followed  him,  and  carried  up  into  heaven. 
The  voice  that  comes  to  those  who  remain  is  in 
the  words,  thou  canst  not  follow  me  now,  but  tliou 
sJialt  follow  me  hereafter.  S.  John  says,  now  are 
we  the  sons  of  God ;  and  it  doth  not  yet  appear 
what  we  shall  be  ;  but  we  know  that  when  he  shall 
appear  we  shall  be  like  him;  for  we  shall  see  him 
as  he  is. 

The  assumption  that  this  course  of  human  life  is 
strictly  the  probation  of  the  individual  in  his  ma- 
ture development,  and  that  the  terminus  of  this 
probation  is  in  the  incident  of  the  death  of  the 
individual,  and  that  the  location  of  heaven  and 
hell  is  beyond  the  earth,  and  that  the  object  of 


THE  FULLNESS  OF  LIFE.  259 

salvation  is  transportation  to  the  one  and  escape 
from  the  other,  and  that  human  life  is  evil,  and 
that  the  few  who  have  a  conscious  faith,  which 
has  yet  in  itself  no  ethical  ground,  are  alone  saved 
in  the  ultimate  assize,  to  which  all  are  summoned ; 
—  this  is  the  staple  of  the  various  religions  of  the 
world. 

The  Christ  has  broken  down  the  barriers  of  the 
grave.  He  has  overcome  death.  He  has  opened 
the  kingdom  of  heaven,  that  the  earth  and  the 
heavens  may  become  thenceforth  one  in  their  life. 
The  superstitions  which  have  divided  and  enslaved 
humanity,  and  the  systems  which  have  held  on  to 
a  root  of  evil  that  was  deeper  than  the  love  of 
God,  are  broken  and  thrown  away.  Tt  is  the  day 
of  deliverance.  The  will  of  God  is  manifested  in 
love.  The  power  of  God  is  the  power  of  the  resur- 
rection. In  the  victory  of  the  Christ  for  humanity, 
there  is  the  conquest  of  hell  and  of  death ;  he  hath 
the  keys  of  hell  and  of  death. 

This  is  the  deliverance  of  man  from  all  the 
powers  that  have  claimed  dominion  over  him,  and 
separated  him  from  God.  It  is  the  freedom,  in  its 
perfect  realization,  of  the  redemptive  power  of  the 
Christ  of  man.  The  grave  has  then  no  victory  in 
its  corruption.  It  is  the  perfect  life,  the  life  of 
those  who  have  loved  righteousness.  It  is  the  life 
of  those  who  have  cast  off  the  garments  of  their 
own  vanity  and  selfishness,  and  entered  into  the 
life  of  Him  who  is  the  Redeemer  of  the  world. 


260  THE  LIFE  OF  THE   SPIRIT. 

It  is  the  new  life,  the  life  of  the  fulfillment  of 
the  spirit ;  it  is  the  life  of  humanity ;  and  no  man 
can  claim  it  in  his  severance,  but  in  the  life  of  hu- 
manity in  the  Christ. 

It  fulfills  the  hope  of  man  ;  it  is  beyond  all  that 
was  prefigured  in  the  prophetic  soul  of  the  wide 
world.  It  is  the  fulfillment  of  the  Will,  in  the 
expression  of  the  apostle,  of  the  God  of  hope.  It 
completes  the  vision  of  the  days  when  the  ser- 
vant shall  be  as  the  master,  and  the  bond  shall  be 
free.  It  is  the  time  when  the  earth  shall  no  more 
conceal  her  blood,  nor  cover  her  slain.  It  is  the 
time,  when  there  shall  be  no  more  crying,  neither 
shall  there  be  any  more  pain,  for  former  things  are 
passed  away.  It  is  the  new  heavens  and  new  earth, 
wherein  dwelleth  righteousness. 

When  the  apostle  to  the  nations  would  express 
the  life  that  is  given  in  the  revelation  of  God  to 
the  world,  he  says,  The  grace  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  and  the  love  of  God,  and  the  fellowship  of 
the  Holy  Ghost  be  with  us  all  evermore. 


/  believe  in  one  God  the  Father  Almighty,  Maker 
of  heaven  and  earth,  And  of  all  things  visible  and 
invisible : 

And  in  one  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  the  only-begotten 
Son  of  God,  Begotten  of  his  Father  before  all 
worlds,  God  of  God,  Light  of  Light,  very  God  of 
very  God,  Begotten,  not  made,  Being  of  one  sub- 
stance with  the  Father,  By  whom  all  things  were 
made ;  Who,  for  us  men,  and  for  our  salvation, 
came  down  from  heaven,  And  was  incarnate  by  the 
Holy  Ghost  of  the  Virgin  Mary,  And  was  made 
man,  And  was  crucified  also  for  us  under  Pon- 
tius Pilate.  He  suffered,  and  was  buried;  And  the 
third  day  he  rose  again,  according  to  the  Scrip- 
tures ;  And  ascended  into  heaven,  And  sitteth  on 
the  right  hand  of  the  Father ;  And  he  shall  come 
again  with  glory  to  judge  both  the  quick  and  the 
dead,  Whose  kingdom  shall  have  no  end. 

And  I  believe  in  the  Holy  Ghost,  the  Lord  and 
Giver  of  Life  ;  Who  proceedeth  from  the  Father 
and  the  Son,  Who  with  the  Father  and  the  Son 
together  is  worshipped  and  glorified,  Who  spake 
by  the  Prophets  ;  And  I  believe  one  Catholic  and 
Apostolic  Church;  I  acknowledge  one  Baptism  for 
the  remission  of  sins  ;  And  I  look  for  the  Resur- 
rection of  the  dead ;  And  the  Life  of  the  world  to 
come.  Amen. 


14  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 

LOAN  DEPT. 


MAY 


>ject  to  immediate  recall. 


•r. 

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